Children of the Tensei
by Pyeknu
Summary: Prequel to "Phoenix From the Ashes." Deanna Hordye is a student of the Tensei-ryū, the martial arts school the Protector of All Life is the grandmaster of. When she and her twin sister are attacked a month after the Liberation, friends of hers — including metahuman students of the Tensei — gather together to aid the Hordye twins…and in doing so, bring the War Hawks home.
1. An Incident in Norman Wells

Canadian Forces Base Petawawa (170 kilometres northwest of Ottawa), Thursday 1 April 2010, early afternoon…

"They're firing for effect now, ma'am."

A nod was the only response from the green-eyed blonde looking to be about twenty years of age, now seated in the commander's hatch of the Coyote reconnaissance vehicle. Said vehicle — along with the five other Coyotes of 12 Troop, A Squadron of the Royal Canadian Dragoons — was currently laagered in a small hollow near Tucker Lake, located in the middle of the military reservation which was the largest piece of Army training ground in central Canada. Blinking as she gazed north through her binoculars, she was quick to sense the slight change of air pressure — accompanied by a faint booming noise — from the southwest that indicated the four M777 howitzers now owned by E Battery of the 2nd Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery were currently doing some business.

"I can hear it," Captain Sasha Spencer breathed out as she tried not to grin as she recalled how much the battery captain of E Battery had talked her ears off about the new field pieces recently acquired by the Army and how much better they were than the older GIAT LG1 105 millimetre howitzer her unit had been equipped with. British-designed and manufactured in the United States by BAE Systems Global Combat Systems, the M777 was a lightweight, towed 155 millimetre howitzer that could reach out and touch someone from forty kilometres away using a special fin-stabilized shell designed by Raytheon. The howitzers had been acquired in only enough numbers to equip ONE regiment of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery per the traditional unit order of battle. The government only allocated funds to buy thirty-seven units despite there were three tactical regiments in the RCHA; that forced the active gun batteries to shrink down from two four-gun firing troops to two two-gun troops or one four-gun troop. Despite the short number of units now available to the Army, the M777 was seeing good use in Afghanistan.

"Hope they know how to shoot…"

Distant _crumps!_ echoed far to the north of 12 Troop's position, echoed by small geysers of earth and smoke erupting from behind the treeline. "Nice," the troop warrant officer mused from the commander's hatch of his Coyote to Sasha's right.

A crackle echoed through Sasha's headphones. "Two-Six, this is Alpha-Six."

"Alpha-Six, Two-Six, go," Sasha called back over the radio.

"Execute Dieppe, over."

"Roger that. Executing Dieppe. Out."

With that, the captain made a swirling motion with her index finger…

* * *

_**Children of the Tensei**_  
by Fred Herriot  
A side story to _Phoenix From the Ashes_

Proofreading done by Rose1948, Rashaan Butler and Rorschach's Blot.

Based on _Ikkitōsen_, created by Shiozaki Yūji; and _Urusei Yatsura_, created by Takahashi Rumiko.

Including characters, concepts and situations from _Mahō Sensei Negima_, created by Akamatsu Ken; _Due South_, created by Paul Haggis; _Kōtetsu Tenshi Kurumi_, created by Kaishaku (Ōta Hitoshi and Shichinohe Terumasa); _Sweet Valley High_, created by Francine Pascal; _Harry Potter_, created by Joanna K. Rowling; _Shadow Man_, created by Melissa Scott; _Battle Royale_, created by Takami Kōshun (as interpreted by Taguchi Masayuki and Keith Giffen); _Gossip Girl_, created by Cecily von Ziegesar; _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_, created by Joss Whedon; and _PS238_, created by Aaron Williams.

_Phoenix From the Ashes_ was derived from the fanfic _The Bet: Crippled_, written by Gregg Sharp. This story also contains characters and situations from the fanfic series _Urusei Yatsura - The Senior Year_, created by Mike Smith and Fred Herriot.

* * *

**WRITER'S INTRODUCTION**

_This is a side story to_ Phoenix From the Ashes_, set in the time before and during that story. This story looks on my character Major Deannette Antonia "Dean" Raeburn and her friends, the War Hawks (introduced in Parts 51, 54 and 60 of_ PFtA_), examining the circumstances surrounding their return full-time to Earth in the summer of 2010. This story also properly introduces other characters I mentioned in_ A Nice Quiet Place _as well as the circumstances concerning how they came together with the "Protector of All Life" (as Dean is called by mystics and magicals worldwide) in the first place. _

_This story also contains characters and situations from my other works, including the still-incomplete_ Deanna's Surprise _(archived at the Legacy of Timeless Beauty Archive, Storiesonline and Literotica). However, the specific circumstances surrounding Deanna Hordye and her twin sister Helena Priella in this universe will be much different — and I believe a little more realistic given this is set in 2010 instead of the unknown future era Deanna'a first story was set in — than what was depicted there. _

_As always, characters and situations from other series will appear here as well; all notes about them will appear at the end of each part of the story._

* * *

Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, Thursday 1 April 2010, nightfall…

The coming of evening would see Captain Sasha Spencer at a field command post close to Highway 17, which bisected the eastern side of the training grounds. Also present were officers from the other troops of A Squadron of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, the troops of E Battery, 2nd Regiment of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, the platoons of the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment and the other elements of 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group that had been out in the field over the last week to simulate a standard infantry battalion battle group attack on a traditional enemy target. While Afghanistan was turning out to be a much different type of war than what officers and non-commissioned members of the Army were traditionally trained to deal with — as many in the brigade had learned over the last eight years and more — their formation commander, Colonel Keith Marshall, wanted to ensure "normal" soldier skills hadn't been lost.

"Alright, that was well done," Marshall, a man in his early forties who had come up the officer ranks in the Canadian Military Engineers, stated as he looked around the briefing area inside the command tent at the gathering of field officers. "I know it's not normal these days to be doing stuff that would have been necessary to know in Germany two decades ago, but I don't want people to lose knowledge of the basics even if we've been busy fighting the three block war in Afghanistan since 9/11. We don't know anything of what could be expected of the Army now that _Haida_'s come into play, so we have to keep the basics in mind even if we've got breathing room thanks to the what the Moroboshis arranged back in February with the Noukiites, the Yehisrites and the Yizibajohei."

There were nods all around from the younger officers. Everyone remembered what had happened in February when over a hundred thousand Noukiite Imperial Marines — crack alien soldiers fighting for one of the local galactic superpowers who were, in many ways, as well trained as the members of the nearly top secret Canadian Special Operations Regiment, which was also based at Petawawa — landed on Earth to capture and remove thousands of Niphentaxian observers from the planet…to say anything of liberating several million Avalonian bioroid slave "assistant observers" who had done all the real observation work for their masters from a planet fifty light-years from the solar system. By the time elements of 2 CMBG could had been mustered to head down to any potential trouble-spot, the deed had already been done and all that was required was the clean-up.

That had been a shocker to the assembled infantry, armoured, artillery, engineer and other officers inside the tent, to say anything of the troops they commanded and all the other officers, non-commissioned members and service personnel in the Canadian Forces and elsewhere across the planet. While the Tag Race situation the previous summer had been nerve-wrecking, the fact that Moroboshi Ataru had won, even by the skin of his teeth — followed by the fact that the woman everyone believed was "Redet Lum" decided to simply settle down with her "husband" and live on Earth in the wake of the "world oil theft" incident — eventually turned people's attention away from Tomobiki to more pressing local matters. Even the military forces of the various nations of Earth had been lulled back into a sense of normalcy; after the ten nail-biting days of standing at what the Americans called DEFCON TWO while Ataru struggled to make the tag, the Canadian Forces once more focused its efforts into supporting the various operations in Afghanistan, the Arabian Gulf and elsewhere that it had been engaged with for nearly a decade.

The day after the Noukiites came to Earth, that sense of "innocent" complacency had been shattered forever when fifty large starships arrived in orbit over Earth.

One of those giant ships had been christened after the "fightingest ship in the Royal Canadian Navy," Her Majesty's Canadian Ship _Haida_.

Within two weeks of her arrival, Parliament announced that the starship _Haida_ would be commissioned into the Canadian Forces, with Maritime Command — the modern incarnation of the Royal Canadian Navy — taking the lead to provide the crew of the ship itself.

The Navy wouldn't be alone in helping man the kilometre-long space battleship, though. Land Forces Command — the modern Canadian Army — was tasked to provide an infantry battalion battle group of 1,500 soldiers to provide a ground combat force to _Haida_ when required; unlike the United States or the United Kingdom, Canada had never constituted any sort of naval infantry force to support its warships at sea.

And Air Command — the successor organization of the Royal Canadian Air Force — was ordered to provide a wing of six squadrons to help man the two hundred point defence fighters that had come along with _Haida_, not to mention her other small craft.

Since that announcement, the Forces' rumour mill had been running rampant in the messes, dining halls, work places and even over the Internet as service personnel from Comox to Saint John's to Alert to Kandahār began to wildly speculate on what units would be tasked or formed to augment the ship's company of Her Majesty's Canadian Starship _Haida_, especially given the still-standing overseas taskings to Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Thinking on that as she half-heard Marshall continued his post-exercise speech, Sasha crossed her arms. In many ways, the Navy had it the easiest of all when it came to manning _Haida_; the ship was already finished and ready, currently hovering five hundred kilometres over Vancouver, empty save for two hundred Terran-form Avalonians who were volunteering to man the ship until the career managers in Ottawa got around to assigning warm bodies. The Air Force also had it quite easy; there were dozens of disbanded squadrons to choose from that could be called back into service and manned up to fill out the berths for what was now being provisionally called "21 Space Wing."

The Army, however…

"Questions?" the brigade commander asked.

"Sir, when do we learn we're going aboard _Haida_?" one 3 RCR lieutenant playfully asked.

Laughter filled the tent as even the lieutenant colonels — the commanding officers of the regiments and battalions that fleshed out 2 CMBG into a war-fighting force of five thousand soldiers in peacetime — grinned; that question had been asked again and again by junior officers and non-commissioned members ever since _Haida_ made orbit. Marshall chuckled as he gazed on his subordinates before holding up his hand to make everyone quiet down. He then turned to gaze on an unknown officer standing nearby. "How do you like them, Captain?"

People looked…and then gaped on noting the silver-haired man beside Marshall had the four black stripes on a plain olive green background marking him as a naval captain on his temperate woodland CADPATs, the Navy anchor beside his name **GAMBLIN** on the right breast of his tunic. "They're eager," he stated with the gentle, confident tones of an officer who had long learned the arcane art of commanding other men in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of the military. "I'd hate to face the people in 1 CMBG and 5 CMBG when they get the bad news. Why don't you tell them the good news."

"I will," the brigade commander stated before facing the group. "I just got the message from Army HQ…and this is no April Fool's Joke, boys and girls," he stated. "As of today, 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group has been tasked as the formation supporting the planned infantry battalion battle group to be located aboard H.M.C.S. _Haida_."

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

And then…

A wild whoop of joy escaped from the RCR officers as they cheered and howled their delight. The others nodded as they applauded the infantry leaders; the Royal Canadian Regiment was the senior regiment of the Royal Canadian Infantry Corps and — by simple virtue of the regiment's _name_, never mind the regiment's impressive battle record! — would represent Canada well in whatever international formation would be created to control _Haida_ and her sisterships. Sasha applauded with them as she fought down her own delight; a squadron of the Royal Canadian Dragoons would be automatically assigned as armoured support to the infantry battalion that would soon be heading into space. Before she could make comment to a friend, though…

«Sasha. Lorrie.»

Sasha instantly tensed on hearing that soft voice echo deep inside her head. She wasn't the only person reacting to that mental hail from far to the south. Nearby, a beautiful, raven-haired captain possessing Slavic facial features — currently standing with the other officers of 2 RCHA — had also stiffened, her hazel eyes widening with both shock and a touch of annoyance. It was quite understandable, though.

Their telepathic friend needed to _seriously_ work on her sense of timing!

_What is it, Maria?_ Sasha mentally "asked." _I'm in the middle of a…_

«It's Deanna, Sasha. She's been attacked.»

THAT made Sasha's fair skin turn nearly white in shock.

_Dee…?!_

"Sash?"

That was Lorrie Melanko; she had just come over from the gathering of artillery officers to place a comforting hand on her former high school classmate's shoulder. As Sasha stared wide-eyed at her friend, neither of them noted the knowing looks on both Keith Marshall's and Brian Gamblin's faces. The brigade group commander exchanged a look with the visiting Navy officer, then the former loudly coughed, which made the younger officers all freeze as they stared in curiosity at the veteran combat engineer.

"Alright, I'm just as overjoyed as the rest of you because of this," Marshall then stated as he held up his hand in reassurance. He then waved to the man beside him. "Before I dismiss you to return to your units to get them back into the garrison so we can get started on the Easter weekend, let me introduce the commanding officer-designate of Her Majesty's Canadian Starship _Haida_, Captain Brian Gamblin. He's skippered every ship type the Navy's had, so he's obviously the best man for the job of taking command of our first starship. I expect those of you who get assigned to _Haida_ to not give this man problems; I don't want to get messages from him concerning that. Understood?!"

"_**YES, SIR!**_" the assembled junior officers chanted as one after snapping to attention.

"Good! Now, get back to your troops and get them into the barracks!"

With a chorus of sharp salutes, the younger men and women all began to file out of the command post. Watching them go, Gamblin nodded in approval. He didn't really have any sort of idea of what the mud-eaters actually did when they were out playing in the field, but one had to be blind to not see the cool professionalism they demonstrated even when standing in front of their formation commander listening to a post-exercise pep talk. No doubt, many were Afghanistan veterans; the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment formed the core of Operation: Athena's Roto 6 from August in 2008 to the following February…and had also been the first troops to participate in that operation all the way back in 2003 when Canada committed land forces to the securing of Kābul against the Ṭālibān. The rest were probably leaning on their brother and sister officers to learn the lessons when it came to dealing with things like IEDs and suicide bombers.

_Thank God the Navy doesn't have to deal with that. Pirates are much easier to handle_, the just-relieved commanding officer of H.M.C.S. _Preserver_ mused to himself as he recalled what his fellow sailors had spoken of concerning the Navy's primary tasking in the War on Terror, where warships were deployed from either Halifax or Esquimalt to work with allied forces in the Arabian Gulf and near the Horn of Africa ensuring civilian shipping traffic was not harassed, usually by pirates based out of Somalia.

Soon, the command post was emptied of all the junior officers save for the brigade's small headquarters staff and two young-looking women — if he didn't know better, Gamblin would estimate both were twenty, the right age to be sophomores in university — with army captain's stripes on their uniforms. However, as soon as he saw their family names on their tunics, the native of Peace River in Alberta nodded, his eyes widening ever so slightly as he recalled the briefing on the "Ladyhawke File" given to him by the Chief of the Maritime Staff, Vice Admiral Dean McFadden, in Ottawa a month ago concerning people who had trained directly under _**her**_ that served in the military.

To believe two of them were HERE…!

«Breathe, Captain!» a voice then echoed inside his head, which made Gamblin jolt. «You don't want to faint in front of a bunch of impressionable soldiers!»

The veteran submariner — Gamblin, back when he was only a lieutenant, had been part of the last Perisher class for non-nuclear submarines the Royal Navy ran in 1995, graduating at the head of his group — jolted before he sighed. _Nice to 'hear' your voice again, Commander Kennison_, he thought back as Sasha Spencer and Lorrie Melanko gave him knowing looks; they had also "heard" that, as did their brigade commander.

"My office," Marshall then offered.

Gamblin nodded as he followed the colonel into the latter's "office," which was the interior of a portable field office placed on the cargo deck of an MLVW, a Bombardier-built version of an REO Motor Car Company M35 cargo truck; the brigade command post was a group of these trucks and locally-built versions of the Iveco VM90 light truck — known in the Canadian Army as the LSVW — with tenting strung up between their cargo decks to allow the space underneath to remain under cover. As soon as Sasha and Lorrie were inside, Marshall locked the door before he waved them to the cot he slept on in the field; the colonel and the visiting Navy captain took the chairs nearby.

"What's going on, Commander?" the brigade commander then asked.

«If I may, Colonel, I'll let Commander Caldwell explain,» came the reply from the Canadian Forces Joint Headquarters in Kingston…

* * *

Norman Wells, Northwest Territories (550 kilometres northwest of Yellowknife), an hour later (local time: A half-hour after supper)…

"How are they?"

A tired sigh from the beautiful raven-haired woman who was now seated beside one of the diagnostic beds in the small medical station in the town located on the east bank of the Mackenzie River first settled in the early part of the previous century when oil had been discovered. "Resolving this is beyond any of my capabilities, Sergeant," Tracey Tutcho breathed out. "I've placed portable stasis fields on both of them, but that only stops the nanites from trying to destroy the other cells in their bodies. There's simply no way or means by which we can reverse what's happened to them."

"The level of the injuries, Healer?" John Patterson, one of three nurses who worked full-time at the Norman Wells Health Clinic, asked as he gazed on the two badly-wounded women on the diagnostic beds, trying not to shake his head in mute horror.

The Avalonian-Sahtú healer took a deep breath. One of over ten thousand bioroids — half of which were genetically patterned after members of the First Nation which lived in this part of the Territories — who elected to settle in this region of Canada, she was one of nearly a hundred who had any medical training or experience. The Avalonian-Sahtú all come from Phentax Nineteen, a very rugged planet that had required a lot of energy and effort to colonize. The Niphentaxians on that world wanted hardy slaves to help tame that planet. Much to the inner disgust of tribal elders who learned the stories of their new alien-born sisters back in late February, observers on Earth recommended copying the DNA of the various aboriginal tribes of the Americas and Australia. Fortunately, the pressing needs of living on a frontier planet would eventually help evolve a shared mentality which — while not allowing any sort of true freedom for the Avalonians — made the Niphentaxians there accept their slaves more as people than machines.

"Right now, Thoughtmistress Priella has lost at least twelve percent of her body mass, mostly in the abdomen," Tracey answered. "Thoughtmistress Hordye has only lost six percent, but the right foot is effectively gone. Given she's a martial artist…"

"What would you recommend, Healer?" Benton Fraser asked.

She shrugged. "Body-swaps. Unless you have technology that would remove these nanites from their bodies, Sergeant, then help regenerate their lost body tissue."

Tracey gave him a knowing look. The former deputy liaison officer at the Canadian consulate in Chicago nodded in grim understanding. Having been posted back to his native territory after his several years of effective exile in the States, he had risen up the ranks; he was now in the running for promotion to staff sergeant, which would allow him to assume command of any of the remote local detachments of the Force's "G" Division. He was still in fantastic physical shape for a man of thirty-eight, his skills in deductive work and tracking unmatched by anyone in the Canadian North; it was said by many of his admirers that Benton's ability to hunt down criminals rivalled that of the Force's most famous man-hunter of all, the legendary Staff Sergeant Martin Larsden himself.

Currently, Benton was employed as a sort of roving troubleshooter, directly answerable to the chief superintendent of "G" Division in Yellowknife even if he lived full-time in a cabin near the old Hudson's Bay Company post at Fort Confidence, located at the northeast corner of Great Bear Lake. And while he was more comfortable moving on foot or by dog sled, Benton also had his float plane license and made use of a de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Turbo-Otter to get to the more remote areas of the territory when the weather allowed it. He had been returning to his home from Inuvik after helping settle an issue with poachers trying to kill a small group of polar bears who lived in the area when he got the call from the Norman Wells detachment concerning a strange attack on two citizens…

…by a _**gynoid**_ of all things!

"Not to my knowledge," the RCMP officer stated as he looked at the still face of Deanna Hordye. "Do she and Professor Priella have any living relatives?"

"None," John answered. "If anything happens to either of them, I have a standing request from Deanna to contact a Lieutenant Commander Maria Kennison; she's currently based at Kingston. I called her as soon as Healer Tutcho got them into suspension."

"What relation is the commander to Master Hordye?"

"Former high school classmate and friend; she also knows a person who would have power of attorney in case either Deanna or Helena become incapacitated and can't make any decisions on their own." The nurse then perked on remembering something. "The commander did advise me of something that I think you need to know, Sergeant."

"And that is?"

"Commander Kennison — when I told her about that…_**thing**_…" John spat before shaking his head and carrying on, "…that attacked Deanna and Helena — advised me to tell you or any other RCMP officer of the…Artificial Persons Act of 1922?"

That made Benton perk as he seared his nearly eidetic memory concerning the law for information on that piece of legislation. He then nodded. "Ah, yes. That's the law that was passed by Parliament in the wake of the Steel Angels' creation during that period. Which means the Canadian Armed Forces will be taking possession of the gynoid in question for analysis and disposal; the Department of National Defence was tasked by that law to investigate any unsanctioned attempts at creating anything similar to Inspector French and her sisters. I will have to contact Joint Task Force…"

"That's not necessary, Sergeant."

Everyone turned…

…before blinking as four people in temperate woodland CADPATs stepped into the room, all officers. On seeing the Navy lieutenant commander's rank insignia on the slip-on worn by the obvious leader — a slender, almost petite, woman with curly brown hair and brilliant blue eyes peeking out of a well-sculptured face — of this group, Benton straightened and saluted; he had his "Stetson of Invulnerability" (as Stanley Kowalski once nicknamed it) on even if he was wearing a plaid flannel shirt, heavy work jeans and work boots. "Commander Kennison," he greeted after reading her name tag. "I assume you are…"

"The one Nurse Patterson contacted concerning Master Hordye and her sister," Maria Kennison stated after returning his salute. "You must be Sergeant Fraser. All the people in JTF North and 1 CRPG speak of you with words of awe."

She was quick to sense the emotionless mask the RCMP officer then allowed to wash over his face, noting how inwardly uncomfortable he was in the presence of such beautiful — and young-looking, no thanks to the mesonium in their bloodstream that guaranteed they would _**never**_ have normal lives whatsoever — women. A "glance" into his mind revealed the image of a dark-haired woman with brown eyes in the uniform of an RCMP inspector. _Meg Thatcher?!_ the intelligence officer now working as J2 Operations for the Canadian Forces Joint Headquarters in Kingston mentally exclaimed on recognizing Benton's old superior in Chicago, who had retired from the Force and now worked for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Images of other women then appeared, though Maria was quick to dismiss them as she allowed her psionic probe to disperse from searching through Benton's head. Much that she was curious about the man's private life — personnel assigned to either Joint Task Force (North) or 1 Canadian Rangers Patrol Group had long commented on the RCMP officer's stiff formality whenever he was close to any woman — she had a task to do.

Especially given what had caused this whole incident in the first place.

"I simply do my duty," Benton calmly stated before he perked. "How exactly did you come here so quickly? Nurse Patterson called you only three hours ago…"

"Materialiser," the lone male military officer of Maria's group, a Navy lieutenant commander with dirty blond hair, a trimmed beard without moustache and blue-grey eyes that flashed with a level of frightful intelligence, stated.

Benton stopped before nodding. "Ah, the _Haida_. Understood."

"Dee…"

People turned to see Sasha Spencer standing beside the diagnostic bed holding the unmoving form of Deanna Hordye, a look that was half-worried and half-enraged on her face. "Did you know Master Hordye, Captain Spencer?" Benton gently asked.

"We were next door neighbours," the armoured officer responded. "Practically grew up together. Went to school together all the way to high school. We stayed in touch while I was going through RMC and she went through Brock and began training under Master Ch'oi. She's taught me some things." Her eyes fell on the other wounded woman in the room. "It was my older brother who helped Deanna find out about Heather after their mother died two years ago and told her they were related. It was the happiest day of her life to find new family; all Deanna had for the longest time were her mother and grandmother."

"And her father?"

"Dead," Maria spoke up. "They divorced when Deanna was a baby, shortly after Heather was given up for adoption. Deanna's never met her father. Never wanted to, either."

Another nod from the RCMP officer. "And Professor Priella?"

"Her adopted parents were killed in an automobile accident five years ago," Maria answered. "She's been on semi-permanent assignment here from Simon Fraser University in analyzing the various aftereffects of industrial progress here in the Territories; she's supported both by the university, the government and what her parents gave to her in their wills." A sigh escaped her. "Why would someone attack them…and do it with a _robot_ of all things?! Helena's totally harmless and Deanna's affiliation to the Tensei-ryū would see potential enemies challenge her to a martial arts duel."

"Where is the gynoid now?" the male commander then asked.

"In the lockup here in town," John Patterson stated. "Healer Tutcho arranged to have another suspension bubble placed on it to make sure it didn't cause more trouble."

"Alright, then. I'll get it over to my lab. Excuse me."

With that, Stephen Caldwell walked out, Lorrie Melanko following him. Maria watched them go, and then perked on sensing a burst of realization escape Benton Fraser. Feeling the RCMP officer's blue eyes fall on her, the intelligence officer felt her cheeks heat. Along with the statements made about this man's remoteness when it came to women she hear of when chatting with friends at JTFN headquarters in Yellowknife had come comments about how even _married_ women felt an attraction for the handsome lawman after he only _**spoke**_ to them. _God!_ **I'm** _feeling that! Was he ever tested for empathic ability?!_ Maria wondered as she tried not to giggle, shielding herself with the help of the harsh discipline she was taught in high school to help her control her then out-of-control telepathy.

She then perked on hearing a ringing noise from nearby. People turned to watch as a shower of energy seemed to pour down from the ceiling near the door to the examination room. That produced a tall woman in normal civilians, one that made Maria blink as a faint flash of recognition surged up from deep within her soul. Of course, she didn't send out a telepathic probe to scan the newcomer with the shaggy, shoulder-length brown hair and almond-shaped, gold-flecked green eyes under reading glasses. Ever since she met her first Avalonian back in February, Maria had learned that the bioroid race could sniff out a sister telepath with grotesque ease. Doing something like that would fly right in the face of the standing orders the selected members of the 33rd Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit had to follow without fail: _**NO**_ revelation about their metahuman abilities to those people who weren't authorized to learn about them!

Given the Avalonians' ability to communicate with each other through their _**dreams**_ via this "Dreamscape" mental version of the Internet they could tap into…

"Lynne," Tracey Tutcho breathed out in relief as the newcomer embraced her.

"We've got the gestation chambers ready," the other woman stated before she gazed on the patients. Her eyes quickly locked on the bloody dressings that covered the stump of Deanna's right leg and the upper abdomen below Helena's breasts. "Lyna…!"

"Will this hurt them?"

That was Sasha, who was giving Lynne a look that was a mixture of wary distrust and grasping hope. Gazing on the armoured officer, the newcomer took a deep breath. "No. All it will do is give them bodies no different than my own, with our shared abilities. My group is more than prepared to help the thoughtmistresses endure the Awakening and help them master their new powers. Given what the healer told us about the nanites, the sooner we get them through this process, the better. The only other option…"

"Is amputating the damaged body parts," Tracey finished for her sister bioroid. "Which will spell the end of Thoughtmistress Hordye's career in the martial arts and condemn Thoughtmistress Priella to a liver machine for the rest of her life."

The visitors from Kingston and Petawawa winced. "Dee would rather die first!" Sasha hissed out as she reached down to gently stroke Deanna's short-cut dark brown hair.

"Considering that Helena loves living up here in lieu of living in Vancouver, she would choose body-swapping," John added. "She's always been a private person."

"The Sahtú elders have stated all is to be done to help them," Benton then spoke up, which made Maria and Sasha stare wide-eyed at him. "They have, in fact, DEMANDED that all is to be done to protect Master Hordye and Professor Priella. They gave no reason as to why, but given they are the regional authority here…"

Sasha sighed. "Dee and Helen made me the executrix of their wills. I'm also legally registered as their power of attorney if they ever become severely wounded."

"You don't trust _tre'cha_?"

The armoured officer blinked before she gazed once more on Lynne. Like Maria, Sasha felt a twitch of recognition deep in her mind concerning this woman. _Where the hell did I see her before? I know I've seen her once! She looks so damned familiar!_ she wondered to herself before answering, "There've been some members of my regiment who've undergone body-swaps. Outside this _marei'cha_ mating urge that hits you people whenever you meet the right sort of person, there was no real change I noted." Sasha had Maria and her twin sister Lynn — a navy lieutenant and nursing officer who was an empath — double-check those people just to make sure of it. "Save for the psionic powers and better overall physical health; they've been running the other troopers in my squadron straight into the ground whenever we go do PT. But given that Dee and Helen are close friends, I'd like a medical officer and a nursing officer I'm close friends with come and monitor this to make sure all's well."

Lynne blinked before nodding, approval flashing in her eyes. "Of course, Captain."

"I'll give my sister and Anne-Marie a call," Maria breathed out…

* * *

Canadian Space Agency Station Aurora (in geosynchronous orbit over Longueuil, Québec), thirty minutes later (Eastern time: Mid-evening)…

"Welcome to our little corner of Station Aurora," the woman with the short, dark blonde hair and the stormy grey eyes greeted the small party that had just beamed up from Norman Wells. "I'm Penny Ayala, the Elder Mother of the Kentra's Cliff Avalonians."

"Thank you, Ms. Ayala," Maria returned as she nodded politely to the other woman. "Especially when it comes to helping us get our friends back on our feet."

"Our pleasure, Major…"

"Commander," Maria quickly corrected with a polite smile. "If the stripes are black on our combat uniforms, we're Navy, not Army." After introducing Benton Fraser and Sasha Spencer to the willowy woman, she then waved to the medical officer with the curly blonde hair done in a bun at the back of the head, blue Air Force captain's stripes on her CADPATs. "This is Captain Anne-Marie McLeod, the chief of surgery at 2 Field Ambulance in Petawawa." A wave then to her twin sister, who wore her wavy brown hair a little longer than Maria did. "My twin sister, Navy Lieutenant Lynn Kennison, chief nurse at 31 Health Services Centre in Borden. She'll serve as Captain McLeod's nurse today."

"Of course," Penny said with a nod, her eyes flashing with recognition — which Maria was quick to note — as she took note of several friends helping Lynne get the anti-gravity gurneys carrying the bodies of Deanna Hordye and Helena Priella away from the materialiser room. Still, while it was good that Deanna's friends had come in her time of need, their showing up in uniform would cause questions to be asked among other groups of bioroids aboard the station, especially those now working directly for the Canadian Space Agency. The presence of an obvious RCMP officer — though not in uniform, his grave demeanour, empathic aura and the Stetson hat indicated he was a member of the famous police force — in an incident like this was understandable. Having four _Canadian Forces_ officers come up with the victims — and in _**combat uniform**_ at that! — would be seen as odd. "Captain, Lieutenant, I'll take you to the gestation chamber. Liz!"

"Yes?"

The visiting officers blinked as someone else came up to join them. Again, Maria and Sasha were touched by jolts of haunting familiarity concerning this woman. The newcomer was the same physical height as Maria, but the former's hair was sun-streaked blonde, extending past her shoulders even if she had barrettes over her ears to pull some of that mass back. Her eyes were a brilliant blue-green that sparkled in the light. Her skin had a California tan and her body was as slender as the intelligence officer's. Like Penny and the others, she was in casual civilian clothing that wouldn't be out of place anywhere in Canada. Also like Penny and the others, she wore a bracelet around her left wrist which had the Canadian flag on it, though there was no provincial or territorial flag interlaced with it. This meant that either the Kentra's Cliff group of Avalonians had yet to elect a permanent place of residence in the Dominion…or they were still waiting for the immigration authorities to grant them clearance to come down; even if Canada had more than enough room to take all the ten million Avalonian-Canadians (and Avalonian-native Canadians) within its borders, the lack of sufficient housing — though that was being worked on by Avalonians who were already in-country — meant that well over half of the bioroids who'd want to make their home there couldn't come down.

"Liz, these are the people who came up with Deanna and her sister," Penny stated, making Maria and Sasha blink in shock on realizing that these girls actually knew the Hordye twins. "I'll take Healer McLeod and Healer-Second Kennison to the gestation chamber to let them monitor the body-swaps. Why don't you escort the others to the lounge so they can relax and wait? It'll be over an hour, so give them full HyperNet access."

"Certainly," the newcomer stated with a nod and a smile.

"Captain Spencer is Deanna's legal next-of-kin," Maria stated.

"We know," Penny stated with a smile. "This way, please."

With that, three confused officers walked off with the elder mother. Maria and Benton watched them head down a hallway that lead towards the central part of Station Aurora — they had beamed into the upper habitation ring — then exchanged looks before gazing on Penny's friend. "I'm Elizabeth Wakefield," the newcomer said as she waved to herself. "My friends call me Liz. You must be Maria Kennison. Deanna's told us a lot about you."

"When did you meet Master Hordye, Miss Wakefield?" Benton asked.

Elizabeth waved them down a different hallway, one that led them along a line of picture windows that gave them a view of the Moon, the bright light of the bioroid factory hanging close to that grey mass. "A month ago, when we helped the Avalonian-Sahtú and the other bioroids and hybrids who wanted to settle in the territories head down from the factory and the other stations. Deanna and Helena were part of the committee the Sahtú Council arranged to welcome their new sisters to freedom in Norman Wells. We've been in communication ever since. Do you have someone who can analyze the gynoid that started this, Sergeant?" she then asked Benton. On noting his surprised look, a knowing smile crossed her face. "Your reputation has long preceded you, Sergeant Fraser. From what I read of the observation records of those of our former masters who kept track of members of the Force, your willingness to chase criminals across the whole of the Northwest Territories — even that part which is now Nunavut — is legendary. Almost as great as all the stories and legends surrounding Staff Sergeant Larsden."

"My late father was part of the staff sergeant's last recruit troop at 'Depot' Division in 1956," Benton affirmed with a nod, his cheeks reddening on being compared to the Force's most legendary man-hunter. "Whenever the staff sergeant returned to Earth because he didn't wish to remain on other planets with Major Raeburn, Commander Thompkins and Major Dover, he always visited Father — as well as all his other students who remained in the Force — and taught me many things about tracking in the wilderness."

"He taught you too well," Maria noted.

The blush deepened. "You're too kind, Commander Kennison." He then gave her a knowing look, which made Maria tense. _You trained under the major herself at Clayhurst, didn't you?_ he then thought out loud enough for the intelligence officer to pick up.

She nodded as a warning look crossed her face, a finger indicating Elizabeth, who had turned away as they walked into a lounge. Nodding in understanding — being a metahuman was something that most people wished not to broadcast to the general public these days, the sergeant knew — he followed the two women over to a circle of chairs close to the bar surrounding a coffee table. There was a woman behind the bar, smiling at Elizabeth. A little taller than Maria's and Benton's guide, she had dark blonde hair that fell down straight to her shoulders and ending in an inward curl, slate grey eyes peeking out of a well-shaped face. She was dressed in more stylish clothing than Elizabeth — _Her lover?_ Maria wondered on noting the flash of deep passion that appeared in both women's eyes on seeing the other — and had a bracelet that also did not show any provincial or territorial symbols on it. "Amy, can we have some coffee?" Elizabeth asked.

"Coming right up, Liz," Amy said with a grin before getting to work.

Hearing that name, Maria perked yet again. _Elizabeth Wakefield. Penny Ayala. A girl named Lynne. Another girl named Amy. All in the same group of Avalonians. I know I've heard the names before, but I can't recall where and when!_ she cursed inwardly as she realized she couldn't put herself into a meditative trance to search her mind for that information — it was a variation of the magical practice of Occlumency that she had been taught when she was in high school; atop learning how to shield her mind from telepathic probes and magical Legilimency, the lessons also gave her the ability to instantaneously access all her memories, even those from earliest childhood — as doing such would be a red flag to any Avalonian; their own meditative techniques were quite similar.

Coffee was soon served, along with home baked sweets. Amy then came over to join them. "So what's this about Dee and Helen being attacked by a gynoid, Liz?" she asked as she sat down beside her friend/sister. "I thought that sort of thing was restricted."

"Not restricted, Miss…?"

"Sutton," Amy answered as she gazed in appreciation at Benton. "Amy Sutton."

Again, Maria felt a twinge of familiarity.

_Amy Sutton?! I KNOW that name! Who in God's Name ARE these people…?!_

* * *

Next to the medical station…

"Hey, Dee. How are you?"

A moan escaped the tall, tomboyish — almost mannish — woman on the diagnostic bed. "I feel like shit, Sash," Deanna Hordye groaned as she opened her bright blue eyes and scanned around. "Eh?!" the second-degree black belt martial artist gasped before she breathed out, "Where the hell am I?! Stephen's lab in Kingston?!"

"Deanna! I thought you liked me!" a strange woman then cutely whined.

Hearing that voice, Deanna relaxed. "Hey, Tricia," she exhaled in relief, which made Sasha blink in confusion. "What did I do to get invited up to your office?"

"You drop-kicked a gynoid that had the ability to secrete nanites that were designed to melt your body's cells," Tricia Martin answered as she walked into view. A petite woman with the build of a ballerina, she had strawberry blonde hair that was in a curly mass and went past her shoulders, brilliant blue eyes — almost the same shade of Deanna's — peeking out of a shapely face composed of creamy skin. The resident healer of the Kentra's Cliff Avalonians often reminded Deanna of a beautiful porcelain doll, which was quite apt given what had inspired her creation in the first place. "Fortunately, Healer Tutcho managed to get you under suspension in time, though the right foot's gone."

Deanna's eyes went wide on hearing that, then she lifted herself up to gaze down at her limbs. Sure enough, her right leg ended in a stump just below her knee, a small mound of bloody bandages covering it. As a gasp of horror escaped her as the idea of being forced to wear a prosthetic sank in, a hand landed on her shoulder as a surge of energy seemed to flood her from head to the toes of her remaining foot. «Relax, Dee!» a voice echoed in her head. «We got to it just in time. We have the means to help you! Relax!»

Seeing Lynne Henry — introductions had been made all around to those of her particular extended family of Avalonians when they had stepped into the gestation chamber — do as Maria Kennison often did to calm people down, Sasha Spencer blinked as she felt a surge of total surprise flood her. _Dee never said a thing about making friends among the Avalonians in her e-mails!_ the armoured officer mused to herself before she felt a supportive squeeze on her shoulder, making her look up at Maria's twin sister, who had a sympathetic smile on her face. _When was she going to tell_ **me** _all this, Lynn?!_

«Most likely when she figured out how she was going to accept a group of women who were modelled on characters from her favourite young adult novel series,» Lynn quietly replied as her eyes twinkled in amusement; her telepathy was a pale shadow of her twin's power given that her primary metahuman gifts were broadcast and sensory empathy, but she could mentally "speak" to people at very close range. «Don't you recognize any of the names?»

Sasha blinked. _What do you mean?!_

"_Sweet Valley High_, Sash."

That made Sasha's head snap around as she gaped in shock at Deanna. Noting the amused, knowing look on her old next door neighbour's face, she then looked at Lynne. After taking a couple of moments of wracking her mind to recall what she could of that series of young adult books which had first come out in the early 1980s when Deanna, Sasha and their friends were still children, she finally moaned out as it came back to her. "Lynne Henry! You're the girl that was in Dee's favourite novel in the whole series!"

"Well, not 'me' exactly," Lynne noted with an amused smile.

Sasha stopped before she nodded. "There were fans of those books on Phentax Two?" she asked as she crossed her arms, remembering the tales she had heard about other Avalonians who had been modelled after fictional characters in Terran literature and media.

"There were," Tricia answered for her friend as she walked over to one control panel to tap switches. Unlike gestation chambers on the bioroid factory itself, the individual units with their genetically incomplete cargoes were kept out of sight in bulkhead slots that could be drawn out with a flick of a switch. Anne-Marie McLeod was now monitoring the templation of Helena Priella's body at a nearby station; the professor of sociology — due to the severity of her wounds — was still under full-body suspension. "Our former mistress was one of them. It was her grandmother — she owned the orphanage on Phentax Twenty-one where we worked as staff — who had us created." She paused as she tried to calculate the difference between the Niphentaxian and Terran calendars. "Oh…"

"Liz and Jess first awoke in 1990," Lynne supplied. "We all came along in 1992 when Herana wanted replicas of all the girls who appeared on the book covers."

"Yeah! Thank Lyna that she stopped collecting those books when they changed the format of the whole series," the raven-haired girl with the bright blue eyes and the ivory complexion — which almost matched Tricia's — spoke up from her place close to Helena's diagnostic bed. "Especially before they introduced Margo Black."

Deanna had looked over, wincing on seeing the mass of bloody bandages on her twin sister's upper abdomen. "How bad is it, Regina?" she quietly asked.

Regina Morrow grimaced. She was templated on one of the more tragic characters in the whole _Sweet Valley High_ series; when Deanna first read the fortieth book _On The Edge_ where Regina died of a drug overdose in 1987, she had cried…and earned a tonne of teasing from Sasha because she had been so emotional about something in a _**novel**_ of all things. "She lost her liver, half the stomach and a good portion of her small and large intestines," the assistant healer reported. "If Healer Tutcho didn't get to her in time…"

The martial artist nodded as a surge of rage flooded her. "Sash, PLEASE tell me that thing's now in Stephen's hands!" she growled as she glared at Sasha.

"That, you can take to the bank," the armoured officer assured with a nod.

* * *

Canadian Forces Base Kingston (200 kilometres southwest from Ottawa), that moment…

Stephen Caldwell considered himself a very logical man.

It was hard not to be such given he had been literally BORN with metahuman levels of intelligence that would make another man named Stephen look like an illiterate child.

"_The IQ test hasn't been_ **made** _for you, Steve!_" a laughing Deanna Hordye once commented about the inventor's latest interesting gadget back when they were in Grade Seven.

And while he — like nearly a hundred others, all his unit-mates slated to form the 33rd Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit amongst them — had gained his abilities thanks to hidden experiments carried out by one of the more successful early students of Canada's most famous soldier, he didn't regret all the advantages that gift had given him.

It had, however, given the recruiters nightmares when they tried to find the right trade for him to enter when he — honouring the agreement he had made with _**her**_ in 1991 just before he enrolled in the University of Toronto — agreed to become an officer in the military. They eventually settled on making the young native of Smithville — a small village in the township of West Lincoln northwest of Deanna's hometown of Welland — a marine systems engineering officer, the commissioned personnel in charge of and responsible for everything that kept a warship afloat and moving. While he had done a couple of tours on H.M.C. Ships _Huron_ and _Toronto_ after he was formally commissioned in 1995, Stephen had no illusions about what his _real_ duties would constitute once he was "trained" in his trade.

While his "official" posting now was registered as J3 Naval Operations at Canadian Forces Joint Headquarters in Kingston, Stephen's _**real**_ job — as all those who had any sort of access to the Ladyhawke File at National Defence Headquarters knew — was serving as the Technical Officer of the 33rd Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit.

The "Heroes Alliance of Canada" as the team's resident wit, Captain Russell Willis, nicknamed them…just as the 33rd Unit's famous predecessors from World War Two, the 1st Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit, were better known as the "War Hawks."

When properly mobilized by order of the Governor-in-Council — the exercise of the executive power of the Dominion by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister and Cabinet — the 33rd Unit's primary task would be to deliver a massive level of metahuman striking power which was shared between the team's thirteen current members and twelve reserve members on any enemy of the Dominion or her allies.

Though they were all prepared for such an eventuality, all the members of the 33rd Unit actually hoped that they would NOT be so mobilized.

It was with good reason.

Ever since before World War Two, Earth had been haunted with the presence of non-magical metahumans. Beings possessing a vast array of powers that defied human norms, they — in the days of the Great Depression and in the wake of the disappearance of the Steel Angels _en masse_ during the rise of the Nazis, the Italian fascists and the Japanese militarists, such creating a prevalent sense of hopelessness on many people — gladly donned colourful costumes and engaged in incredible adventures that matched some of the more wilder stories from ancient mythology, either for self-gratification or on behalf of those who couldn't defend themselves against the more selfish of their kind. Such battles — which rivalled the simply countless "fight scenes" that was a constant factor of life on the planet Yiziba — had been relatively low-key and localized until the Übermenschen Gruppe was created at the orders of Adolf Hitler in 1941 to strike at North America and the Soviet Union well beyond the reach of either the normal Wehrmacht or the Magische Reichsarmee then under the command of Reich Minister of Magic Gellert Grindelwald.

Suddenly, war plants in America and Canada were being wrecked by teams of fanatic Nazis who couldn't be stopped by rapid-reaction squads of hit wizards and hit witches under the control of the Department of Magic in Washington and the Ministry of Magical Affairs in Ottawa. In desperation, President Franklin Roosevelt put out a call for American metahumans to band together in a "Liberty Legion" to fight the Übermenschen on an equal footing. In Canada, it had been much easier: With _**her**_ help, three metahumans — a self-trained master sorceress from Québec City in the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service, a woman from Winnipeg in the Royal Canadian Air Force Women's Division whose soul was fused together with a multiple millennia old Slavic _žar-ptícja_, and a Royal Canadian Mounted Police staff sergeant (then mobilized in the Canadian Provost Corps) from Chatham in New Brunswick who had been blessed by a Mi'kmaq shaman to become a "hunter of hunters" after he had saved said shaman's life — were gathered together in a tight-knit unit that took the war to the Übermenschen in a way the Liberty Legion simply couldn't.

The _**War Hawks**_.

It had been the best decision the military leadership in Ottawa had ever made.

And it had been a brutal object lesson for the rest of the world to learn.

The savage combat between the War Hawks and the Übermenschen resulted in two things for Canadians when the guns went silent in the late summer of 1945: The Omega Protocol, which demanded harsh if not lethal action against those infused with ebony meson…

…and a school for metahumans founded by _**her**_ after her retirement from the Canadian Army in 1954, located at her newly-acquired mansion house near the hamlet of Clayhurst, forty-five kilometres east of Fort Saint John in northeast British Columbia.

Stephen Caldwell had trained there after his graduation from university.

As had the other prospective members of the 33rd Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit.

Though in the case of people like Maria Kennison, they received extra training from their predecessors — who disguised themselves to ensure no external attention would fall their way from inside or outside Canada — while they were attending Welland Centennial High School long before any of the younger of metahumans ever considered a military career.

Even if it might have been ultimately rigged by _**her**_, none of Stephen's friends regretted what they had elected to do when they swore the oath to the Crown.

In his case, it allowed him to investigate all sorts of interesting phenomena.

Case in point…

"So this is the thing that attacked your friend?"

"Yes, it is," Stephen stated as he gazed on the commanding officer of the Joint Headquarters, Colonel Paul Richards. An infantry officer by training, affiliated with Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, he was tasked to ensure a field deployable formation headquarters could be prepared and sent overseas from Kingston when needed. And while the Army rumour mill stated that the high brass were considering transforming CFJHQ back to its pre-2000 incarnation as the Headquarters of the First Canadian Division to help preserve all the hard-won lessons of Afghanistan, the current structure of the unit ensured that the Navy and Air Force were properly represented. And while many of CFJHQ's functions had been taken away by the formation of Canadian Expeditionary Forces Command in Ottawa four years before to supervise all deployments of troops beyond Canada's borders, the core mission was still there…as well as the hidden function of masking the existence of 33 CSWU.

"Who did that?" Richards then asked as he pointed.

"That was Master Hordye," Stephen answered as he gazed on the unmoving gynoid now on a diagnostic table in the middle of his private laboratory, located in a basement level of the Joint Headquarters building in the McNaughton Barracks side of CFB Kingston north of Highway 2 and east of Highway 15. "Snap side-kick into the abdomen. Deanna was incensed at the idea of her sister being hurt like she was, so she put ki behind her strike." He then sighed. "I've just started the diagnostic of her basic systems right now; with this sort of thing, it's next to impossible to predict what sort of results will come."

The colonel nodded. "Pretty girl," he mused.

Stephen nodded in turn. The gynoid was shaped like a normal woman; save for the foot-sized ripped-open section of abdomen below her rib cage framed by burnt and jagged edges of her cardigan sweater — no doubt, caused by an electrical fire — there was simply no means to tell she was an artificial intelligence created in a laboratory similar to what Stephen Caldwell could produce for himself. Reflecting on that, the technical officer of 33 CSWU smirked. Stephen could build androids and gynoids with the same level of human-like intelligence the famous Steel Angels had possessed back in the 1920s and 1930s…and do it with next to no impact on his personal operating budget, which was funded with the help of the Ministry of Magical Affairs through Gringotts' Toronto branch; reflecting on that, Stephen often smirked at the fact that his personal operations budget rivalled that of Land Forces Command as a whole! He didn't used AIs, though; he didn't see himself as a technosexual, didn't have need of assistants and there were far more interesting things to invent.

Captain Lynda Warbis, the unit's air officer and a pilot with 425e Escadron Tactique de Chasse in Bagotville on the Rivière Saguenay a hundred and fifty kilometres almost due north of Québec City, once joked that as a die-hard _Doctor Who_ fan, Stephen was still privately committed to making an honest-to-goodness working TARDIS.

"_No thanks, Lynda_," he said. "_I've no interest in bringing Daleks and Cybermen to our Earth. We might as well launch our own Dawn of Power than let THAT happen_."

Given how much the Dawn of Power had totally transformed Yiziba into a planet where metahuman battles happened 24/7, THAT was something to be avoided at all costs!

"Yes, she is that," the lieutenant commander mused as he pressed the pointed end of a probe into the synthetic skin on the forehead of the unmoving woman with the long black hair in a ponytail and the now-lifeless brown eyes. "Looks a little like Captain Melanko now that I think of it. I wonder if the person who created this unit knew of us."

Richards perked. "You do your security checks?"

The younger man tried not to snort at such a useless and unnecessary question; he didn't wish to antagonize the man who was his administrative commanding officer. "As frequently as I can…but I have to remind you, sir, that we're all human even if people attach the adjective prefix 'meta-' to that term when it comes to us. With the Avalonians here now, the potential of security breaches increases exponentially. I am keeping an eye on it — as are all the others — but there is the potential for mistakes."

The infantry officer from Kenora in northwest Ontario nodded in understanding. "Which means we have to get you aboard _Haida_ as soon as possible so you can do a deep tech analysis of the ship; as a maritime engineer, it'd be expected. Can you keep your true nature secret from Mister Ki, Miss Hakaru or any of the Moroboshi siblings?"

"When it comes to Lady Negako, that would be simply impossible, sir," Stephen answered. "The woman's knowledge in the martial arts — including reading one's ki signature — rivals that of the Major herself. Still, given that she prefers to remain on Earth unless it's necessary, I doubt she'd be aboard _Haida_ when I go up to visit. Her siblings share in that knowledge, but given their desire to have normal lives — if what I've read of them is true — I doubt they'd 'look' too intensively. As for the two youngsters, their being tōshi may give them some advantages, but they haven't had a chance to engage in the intensive combat their peers back in Japan do. Besides, given my own skills, I could 'shock and awe' them both with what I've devised to earn their silence."

Richards nodded. The fact that he was technically the effective formation commander for 33 CSWU given that two of their officers worked under him made him extra cautious when it came to dealing with his J2 Operations and J3 Naval Operations. _I wonder if this is how all the unit commanders dealing with the commander's peers feel the same way_, he mused yet again before sighing. "Make sure you take Commander Kennison with you."

The younger man nodded. "Aye, sir."

"And get some sleep!" the colonel added. "You pull in enough all-nighters, for God's sake. You may be a meta, Stephen, but you don't have Lorrie's energy levels!"

Stephen nodded again, trying not to grin. "Aye-aye, sir…"

* * *

Station Aurora, an hour later…

"Oh, my Lord…"

"Amazing, isn't it?"

Sasha Spencer shakily nodded as she gazed on the two unmoving, fully templated bioroids which had been pulled out of their gestation chambers by Tricia Martin and Regina Morrow. "Well, I'll say this, Regina," the armoured officer stated as she shook her head. "Whoever built that factory of yours really knew what the hell they were doing!"

"Why do they look so different?" Lynn Kennison then asked.

"What do you mean, Lynn?" Tricia asked in turn.

"Why do they look so different than what Deanna and Helena look like?"

Hearing that from 33 CSWU's resident nurse, Sasha blinked before she gazed on Deanna — now in a meditative trance, having been put there with Lynne Henry's help — and then her clone. She was quick to note the softer — even _sexier_! — facial features, the far more pronounced breasts and hip structure and the other minute details that would ensure that no one would even mistake Deanna Hordye as a man ever again; as she was growing up, it had been something of a running joke to use male pronouns with her…which normally earned the offending idiot a quick pounding from the budding martial artist as a result. "Damn! You're right about that, Lynn! What the hell's going on here, Anne-Marie?"

Anne-Marie McLeod shook her head. "I can't understand it, Sasha," the doctor from Kingston who secretly served as 33 CSWU's medical officer answered. "Deanna's as healthy as a thoroughbred horse. Even living with her sister hasn't stopped her…"

"Actually, Anne-Marie, we can explain it."

Eyes locked on Tricia. "What do you mean?" Sasha asked.

The healer of the Kentra's Cliff Avalonians took a deep breath. "Did you ever do a karyotype examination on either Deanna or Helena?" she then asked.

Silence.

Anne-Marie was now pale. "Oh, my God…you mean to say…?"

Tricia nodded. "If this was the planet Hustaros, we'd be addressing Deanna and Helena with the honorific '_Serray_' in lieu of '_Sera_,'" she announced.

More silence.

"D-d-Deanna's missing o-ovaries…?" a wide-eyed Lynn sputtered. She had seen the surgical scars on her friend's lower abdomen many times before; only after she graduated from Mohawk College with her degree did she understand what those scars represented.

"She — and Helena — were born with gonadal dysgenesis," Tricia reported. "From what I was able to model of their genetic makeup after I first scanned them when Helena caught a cold and needed some help, they were born with ovotestes; those were removed shortly after birth. They also had their clitorises remodelled; according to what I was able to note from their DNA, they were probably grossly deformed for 'normal' women. The result of that is what you got to know growing up, Sasha," she stated as she gazed on a stunned Sasha. "Deanna — and Helena when she lived with her adopted parents in Vancouver — were raised as women, but could never develop as real women normally do when puberty finally hit. Why did Deanna never get the urge to date anyone? Why did she not have the same urges any of you had? Why did people still mistake her as a boy at times even if she dressed properly? It's because her body simply couldn't develop that way. Without ovaries, her body couldn't produce the oestrogen she would need for a healthy life."

Sasha blinked as she considered that point, trying not to let her brain crash from the bomb her host just dropped on her — _Dee's a_ **hermaphrodite**_?!_ she mentally railed — before slowly nodding, calling on her own self-discipline to keep her calm and not let her lash out with her own massive FISS-type metahuman powers on the people around her. "I…God, I never asked her about that!" she hissed. "I knew she had to take some drugs constantly when we were going through school, but I never asked what they were! I've always hated drugs; never could stand being made to take them when I got sick…"

Their host nodded. "Even to now, she — and Helena — have been forced to undergo hormone replacement therapy to allow themselves to try to be women in their bodies as well as their souls. When I finally realized what was going on with them, I immediately offered body-swaps so they could get bodies that properly fit their personal viewpoint of themselves." Tricia sighed. "That was two weeks ago. Deanna and Helena wanted to think about it as they needed to consider all the other factors about becoming Avalonians." A glance down to the sleeping martial artist and her sister. "It was only proper."

"A much longer lifespan, the psionic powers, the _marei'cha_ urge, the inner sense of the Te'a…" Anne-Marie breathed out. She knew many female members of 2 Field Ambulance had either undergone or planned to undergo body-swaps to "better serve the Crown" as members of the Canadian Forces Medical Services. "Oh, my God…"

"So what now?" Sasha asked.

Tricia smiled. "We give them their new lives. Lynne?"

Lynne — who had remained close to Deanna as her new body was being prepared and she herself had meditated to prepare her soul for the _tre'cha_ — nodded as she slipped on ruby meson-lined gloves. With that, she picked up the clone's left hand, splaying the fingers so that the sensitive nerves there would lock in on Deanna's nervous system to commence the soul-shift. "Stand clear," she warned as she noted Regina was doing the same thing with Helena's clone. After Sasha stepped back, Lynne moved next to Deanna, shifting the clone's hand over to poise it over its template's face. "And now…"

Contact was made…just as the areas around Deanna's ruined right leg and Helena's mid-rift suddenly glowed star-bright, blinding everyone…

* * *

Somewhere, that moment…

"No, no, no, freak…you won't be allowed THAT escape…!"

Howling laughter filled the work room…

* * *

CFB Kingston…

"_A-lert! Tar-get — at-temp-ting — soul-shift! Na-nites — ac-ti-va-ting!_"

Hearing that — in a voice that was quite close to Lorrie Melanko's — Stephen swore under his breath as he admonished himself for not putting his current guest until a very strict form of full-body stasis. Leaping to the monitor station next to the diagnostic bed holding the damaged gynoid, his fingers then flew over the keyboard to commence a full systems diagnostic; by doing that, he hoped to cause the unit's central processors to totally overload and shut down, thus preventing whatever she was trying to do.

_Hopefully, whoever started this is making a mistake_, the technical officer mused to himself as an eager, almost thirsty, smile crossed his face…

* * *

Aboard the Avalon bioroid factory at Lagrange Point One, at the top level of Gestation Tower #98, that moment…

"Whoever you are, you will NOT get away with harming them!"

_**Forming blocking field around the nanites attempting to kill Deanna Sophia Hordye and Helena Andrea Priella now, Controller.**_

Hefting the seventeen millennia old weapon of mass destruction she had seized weeks before from an unworthy monster that wanted to see her and her classmates — rescued from a three day hell-on-earth called _The Program_ — enslaved, the teenage would-be warrior-priestess of Ahura Mazdā from another dimension concentrated.

Heeding the wishes of its first proper controller in all those years, the Staff of Gihan focused its power at two helpless people within Canadian Space Agency Station Aurora, its head-sized focusing crystal glowing before invisible beams of energy lashed out…

* * *

Station Aurora…

"_**WHAT'S HAPPENING?!**_" Anne-Marie shrilled.

All the Avalonians in the room were visibly in pain as they gripped their foreheads and tried to fight off the tidal waves of power slamming into their brains. "It's some…sort of mental…blocking shield…!" Tricia gasped, blood leaking from her nose as she tried to tap controls and raise the power of the suspension fields over Deanna and Helena to the maximum level possible. "Lynne…Regina…did they…?"

"Can't…reach them…!" Lynne cried out as she curled in on herself.

Watching the bioroids suffer like that, Lynn Kennison gritted her teeth; the waves of psionic energy that were badly hurting all of their hosts were getting at her as well. Before she could decide what to do, the door to the gestation chamber flew open to reveal her twin sister. On seeing her, Lynn was quick to note that Maria — while her brow was furrowed in intensive concentration — wasn't as affected by whatever was happening to the other psychics present. Before she could call out to her twin, the commander of 33 CSWU pushed out her hands to form a psionic bubble around everyone…

…and then she cried out as something with the relentless power of a tsunami slammed into her mind, driving her to her knees as she passed out.

"_**MARIA!**_" Lynn screamed out as she lept to her sister's side…

* * *

Somewhere…

"_**NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…!**_"

* * *

CFB Kingston…

"_A-lert. Un-known — en-er-gy — block-ing — na-nites — from — ex-e-cu-ting — di-rec-tive — to — e-lim-in-ate — tar-get. Mal-func-tion! Mal-func-tion! U-nit — de-ac-ti-va-tiiiiiiiiiiiiiing…_"

As the gynoid went very still, Stephen hummed. "Interesting…"

His fingers then began to fly over the keyboard…

**_To Be Continued…_ **

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES**

A general note: Given that this story is set in the same universe as _Phoenix From the Ashes_, it would be advised to read that story — especially the writer's notes contained at the end of each part — to better comprehend some of the people, concepts and other things introduced here. If I made notes on EVERYTHING that was mentioned here which was mentioned or appeared in _PFtA_, the writer's notes could potentially equal the story text itself! I don't think that's necessary.

A quick note about how I handle psionic communication and other special forms of speaking in conversations appearing in my stories: If you see text written like **«(speech)»** (without quotes), that is an active telepathic communication sent out from someone. If the speech is just _**(speech)**_ with italicized fonts, the person in question is simply thinking their answer back; the telepath would be able to "hear" it thanks to her/his own abilities. Any sentences written as **"«(speech)»"** (with quote marks bracketing the double arrowheads) indicates a foreign language being spoken, though I will normally note the language being spoken in the narrative. Any conversation sentences written with **"**_**(speech)**_**"** with italicized fonts between quotes can represent either a statement made in the past or any type of artificial intelligence (i.e. a gynoid) speaking; the narrative will contain the specific context.

Now, specific notes for this part:

1) Canadian military unit notes:

The **Royal Canadian Dragoons** (**RCD**) is the senior regiment of the **Royal Canadian Armoured Corps** (**RCAC**). First formed as the "Cavalry School Corps" in 1883, the unit received its present title ten years later. The regiment was involved in the Northwest Rebellion of 1885, the Second Boer War of 1899-1902, both World Wars, various peacekeeping operations after the Korean War and the War on Terror in Afghanistan. Today, the regiment is mostly based at Petawawa, though C Squadron is located at **Gagetown** in New Brunswick close to Fredericton.

The **Royal Canadian Horse Artillery** (**RCHA**) is the oldest regular military unit in Canada, having been first established in 1870 with the formation of A and B Batteries in Kingston. As noted in Part 38 of _PFtA_, the **Royal Canadian Artillery** (**RCA**) — of which, the RCHA constitutes the vast majority of the full-time artillery services — considers the company-sized **battery** as the primary tactical unit, not the battalion-sized **regiment**. Thus, it is easy to shuffle batteries around between regiments according to strategic and tactical needs. Currently, the **2nd Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery** (**2 RCHA**) is composed of D, E, F and Y Batteries, plus a headquarters and combat service support battery. The 2nd Regiment was first constituted in 1950 for service in Korea; the unit has also participated in peacekeeping missions and deployed troops to Afghanistan.

Note that in the RCHA, batteries are lettered from A to Z while normal (regular and reserve) RCA batteries are numbered from 1 to 215.

The **Royal Canadian Regiment** (**RCR**) is the senior regiment of the **Royal Canadian Infantry Corps** (**RCIC**). As the Royal Canadian Dragoons were so formed, the Royal Canadian Regiment was formed in 1883 as the "Infantry School Corps"; both units were tasked to provide training to the **Militia** (Canada's part-time reserve army). The RCR gained its present name in 1901. The RCR participated in all wars that their armoured counterparts did, plus also saw action in Korea. Today, the regiment is split into four battalions, three regular and one reserve. All full-time battalions are parts of **2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group** (**2 CMBG**), with 1st and 3rd Battalions based in Petawawa and 2nd Battalion in Gagetown. The 4th Battalion is part of **31 Canadian Brigade Group** (**31 CBG**) — the formation covering southwest Ontario — and is based in **London** half-way between Toronto and Detroit.

The **Canadian Special Operations Regiment** (**CSOR**) is Canada's answer to the 75th Ranger Regiment of the United States Army. A special operations unit under the control of **Canadian Special Operations Forces Command** (**CANSOFCOM**) in Ottawa, CSOR is a high-readiness unit that can participate in various types of operations such as direct action (short-range, high-risk operations against small targets in a potentially sensitive environment), defence diplomacy and military assistance (pursuit of foreign policy objectives through the peaceful employment of defence resources and capabilities) and special reconnaissance (deployment of personnel to scout objectives in a clandestine manner, usually behind enemy lines, while avoiding direct combat and detection by the enemy). The regiment was formed in 2006. It is considered directly descent from the famous **Devil's Brigade**, also known as the **First Special Service Force** (**FSSF**), a combined Canadian-American commando brigade formed for special operations that later participated in the Italian and southern France campaigns of World War Two from 1942-44; this formation is better known thanks to the historically inaccurate 1968 film starring William Holden and Cliff Robertson.

**H.M.C.S. **_**Preserver**_ (pendant **AOR-510**) is one of two Protecteur-class auxiliary oiler/replenishment ships in service in the Canadian Navy. First ordered in the 1960s, she was launched in 1969 and commissioned the next year. She underwent a refit in 2005 to correct major electrical problems. _Preserver_ was involved in both the Persian Gulf War and in recent operations supporting the War on Terror. She is currently based in Halifax and serves as the replenishment ship for the vessels of **Maritime Forces Atlantic** (**MARLANT**). _Preserver_ and her sistership **H.M.C.S. **_**Protecteur**_ (**AOR-509**) are due to be decommissioned in 2017, to be replaced by the new Queenston-class replenishment ships two years later…which will sadly deprive the Canadian Navy of needed strategic support during that period.

**Joint Task Force (North)** (**JTFN**), at the time of this story, is the element of **Canada Command** (**Canada COM**) — after 2012, the **Canadian Joint Operations Command** (**CJOC**) — which directs all military operations within the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut. The command element of JTFN was first established in 2006 (the same year Canada Command was formed) from the disbanded **Canadian Forces Northern Region** (**CFNR**) headquarters, which was first formed in 1970. JTFN, as noted above, is headquartered in Yellowknife.

**1 Canadian Rangers Patrol Group** (**1 CRPG**) is part of the **Canadian Rangers**, an element of the Canadian Forces tasked to provide a military presence in sparsely-populated regions of the country, especially up north. A volunteer force composed of Inuit, First Nations, Métis and non-aboriginal men and women, it is built on platoon-sized **patrols** which are administratively controlled by a **patrol group** covering one part of the Dominion. 1 CRPG — headquartered in Yellowknife — is the largest of the five Ranger patrol groups; currently, there are fifty-six active patrols in the group spread across the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Members of the Canadian Rangers are equipped by the government with a Lee-Enfield No. 4 .303 bolt-action rifle (so chosen because it can survive in very harsh conditions, especially in the Arctic), an astrocompass and a high frequency shortwave radio…not to mention a red sweatshirt and baseball cap with the Rangers' logo on it, CADPAT pants and safety vest, plus other things that would allow each member to identify him/herself as a part of that group. Each member of the Rangers is allocated 200 rounds of ammunition per year. Each member of the Rangers, however, must provide his/her own transportation like snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, watercraft, trailers, pack horses, sled dog teams, and a variety of tools and equipment (such as radios, chainsaws, generators, and the like)…though when used in official capacities such as sovereignty patrols, the government would reimburse the individual.

**Canadian Forces Joint Headquarters** (**CFJHQ**) is the 2000-10 incarnation of **Headquarters, First Canadian Division** (**1 CDN DIV HQ**), the top-level field formation headquarters unit of the Canadian Army. Established to provide a more "joint" field headquarters for large deployments abroad — thus allowing members of the Navy and Air Force to participate on equal footing with the Army — the operational functions of CFJHQ were mostly taken away when the headquarters unit of **Canadian Expeditionary Forces Command** (**CEFCOM**) was established in Ottawa in 2006 as noted above; the latter formation was tasked to provide all operational command, control and support over Canadian military units deployed outside national territory. It was around that time that talk of reverting CFJHQ to 1 CDN DIV HQ began.

**2 Field Ambulance** (**2 FD AMB**) is the medical unit that was once assigned to 2 CMBG, though it still works with elements of that formation whenever its services are required. Ever since the turn of the millennium, the unit has been a part of the **Canadian Forces Health Services Group** (**CF HSvcs Gp**), the formation in charge of all internal medical and dental services in the military.

**31 Canadian Forces Health Services Centre** (**31 CFHSC**) is the local element of the Health Services Group based at **Borden** in Ontario.

**H.M.C.S. **_**Huron**_ (**DDH-281**, later **DDG-281**) was an Iroquois-class destroyer ordered in the late 1960s, launched in 1971 and commissioned the next year to serve as an anti-submarine warfare platform with greater capabilities than older vessels, including a limited point air defence system. The ship was refitted into an area air warfare guided missile destroyer in the mid-1990s. However, manning shortfalls forced her decommissioning in 2005; _Huron_ would eventually be sunk two years later as a target vessel during a training exercise.

**Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry** (**PPCLI**) is the Army's second-senior infantry regiment. It is also one of the last units to be formed and initially financed at the instigation of a private citizen. The regiment was first organized in Ottawa right after the start of World War One thanks to **Andrew Hamilton Gault** (1882-1958), who contributed $100,000 (equal to two million dollars in 2006) to the unit's creation for service overseas. The regiment fought in both World Wars, Korea and Afghanistan, plus participated in peacekeeping operations. Currently, the Patricias are formed in three battalions, with 1st and 3rd Battalions based in Edmonton and 2nd Battalion based in **Shilo** west of Winnipeg; all three battalions are parts of **1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group** (**1 CMBG**). The regiment also has a Militia battalion, **The Loyal Edmonton Regiment (4th Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry)** (**LER**), based in its namesake city and currently serving as part of **41 Canadian Brigade Group** (**41 CBG**), the province-wide reserve Army formation. Unlike the 4th Battalion of the Royal Canadians, personnel of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment wear their own cap badge and maintain their own individual regimental traditions, which stem all the way from the unit's founding in 1908.

**425e Escadron Tactique de Chasse** (**425e ETC**) — literally "425 Tactical Fighter Squadron" — is one of Canada's two primary tactical fighter units. The squadron was formed as a bomber unit in 1942 to serve in the European theatre of World War Two. Disbanded in 1945, the squadron was reformed as a fighter unit in 1954, serving as such to this day. The squadron was a French-language unit from the very beginning; the squadron nickname is **Alouette** ("skylark") — from the folk child's song of the same name that was first published in 1879 — and the unit motto, taken from that song, is _Je Te Plumerai_ ("I Shall Pluck You").

2) The **Coyote** is a modified Canadian-built version of the Swiss MOWAG Piranha 8x8 wheeled armoured vehicle; it is similar to the **LAV-25** used by the United States Marine Corps (which is not surprising as both types are built by **General Dynamics Land Systems** of London in Ontario). The Coyote has an M242 Bushmaster 25 millimetre chain gun and can be equipped with two 7.62 millimetre general purpose machine guns (one mounted coaxial with the main gun, the other atop the turret for the crew commander to use). The vehicle comes in three types: Command, Mast and Remote. The Mast and Remote variants have sophisticated suites of electronic surveillance equipment including radar, video and infrared surveillance night vision devices. The Mast variant has the equipment on a ten-metre telescoping mast mounted behind the turret; the Remote variant uses a two hundred-metre spool of cable to deploy the surveillance equipment on two short tripods. Unlike the LAV-25, the Coyote is not amphibious.

At the time of this story, the Royal Canadian Dragoons is tasked as a reconnaissance regiment, thus uses the Coyote as its primary fighting vehicle. Proper tanks were reintroduced to the Dragoons' C Squadron in Gagetown in 2006; the regiment had not made use of such vehicles since shortly after the end of the Cold War.

3) Translations and explanations: **Laager** — To "laager" something is to gather a group of vehicles in a defensive circle for protection (used today for tanks and armoured vehicles, originated in the American West when it came to horse-drawn waggons to avoid attacks by natives); **Roto** — Short for "rotation," this is used to describe a mass deployment from Canada overseas of military personnel to help support a long-term operation such as **Operation: Athena** (the Canadian contribution to the NATO-led **International Security Assistance Force** [**ISAF**] in Afghanistan) for an average period of six months before being relieved by the next rotation; **Three Block War** — A term coined in the 1990s where military personnel were predicted to be forced in the future to fight a standard war, engage in peacekeeping and participate in a humanitarian operation…and do it all within three city blocks; **DEFCON** — Short for "Defence Readiness Condition", a term that identifies the alert status of American military forces, ranging from DEFCON FIVE (standard peacetime operations) to DEFCON ONE (open warfare is threatening); **CADPAT** — Short for "Canadian Disruptive Pattern", this is the digitally-designed camouflage pattern worn on combat uniforms by Canadian personnel, which comes in three types: Temperate Woodland (TW), Winter Arctic (WA) or Arid Regions (AR); **MLVW** — Medium Logistics Vehicle (Wheeled), the Canadian designation for the local version of the M35 cargo truck, which was brought into service in 1982 and phased out by 2013; **LSVW** — Light Support Vehicle (Wheeled), the Canadian designation for the local version of the VM 90 series of military vehicles, built by Western Star Trucks of Kelowna in British Columbia and brought into service in 1993; **J2 Operations** — A staff officer at a joint service headquarters unit responsible for monitoring and coordinating active intelligence operations; **RMC** — Short-hand for the **Royal Military College of Canada**, the Canadian Forces' university for officer cadets and naval cadets in Kingston; **PT** — Physical Training; **HyperNet** — Short for "Hyperspace Internet," this is the Avalonians' version of the World Wide Web, with transmission capabilities rated at Warp 15 (759,375 times the speed of light); **J3 Naval Operations** — A staff officer at a joint service headquarters unit responsible for monitoring and coordinating naval operations; **Žar-ptícja** — Literally "ember bird," this is the Slavic version of a phoenix which personifies both good and bad luck (often at the same time); **Karyotype** — Based on the Greek word _karyon_ ("kernel", "seed" or "nucleus"), this is the term that defines the number and appearance of chromosomes in the nucleus of a cell (also used as the term for the complete set of chromosomes in an individual organism or species); **Ovotestes** — Organs which possess aspects of BOTH ovaries and testes (singular form **ovotestis**), which is one result of **Gonadal Dysgenesis**, where sexual organs are blocked from developing properly when puberty comes.

4) As I explained concerning **Maria Christina Kennison** (**Telepath**) and **Lynn Annette Kennison** (**Psimold**) in _A Nice Quiet Place_ Part Two, **Sasha Lynn Spencer** (**Polaris**), **Lorraine "Lorrie" Fëdorovna Melanko** (**Skyfire**), **Stephen William Caldwell** (**Warlock**), **Anne-Marie Elaine McLeod** (**Crossjack**), **Russell Allan Willis** (**Swiftsure**) and **Lynda Danielle Warbis** (**Morning Glory**) were all characters I created in the 1980s for a potential Canadian version of DC Comics' Justice League of America or Marvel Comics' Avengers, the **Heroes Alliance of Canada**; I rarely used them in my writings until _PFtA_. This story will expand on their histories, individual powers…and the fact that the Canadian government has plans to mobilize them into a team of metahuman warriors to defend the Dominion in the same vein as the War Hawks did during World War Two. Their official designation is **33rd Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit** (**33 CSWU**); note that in the universe of this story, the adjective "specialized" (with the "-ed" ending) before "warfare" or "operations" when used in the Canadian Forces indicates metahuman involvement in military operations (the base word "special" without the "-ed" describes the types of missions units like CSOR or its counterparts elsewhere would carry out).

5) The **Sahtú** are commonly known as the **Slavey** (or "Slave") people; it is from this term that the name of **Great Slave Lake** where the capital of the Northwest Territories, **Yellowknife**, is located. A sub-group of the **Dené**, the Sahtú's traditional range extended from around their namesake lake into northeast British Columbia and northwestern Alberta.

6) The lead character of _Due South_, **Benton Fraser**, has a different background history in the universe of this story than in the television series. In _Due South_, he was born in 1962 and joined the RCMP around 1980. In the universe of this story, Benton was born in 1972 (the same year **Deanna Sophia Hordye**, **Helena Andrea Priella** and their peers were born in) and joined the RCMP in 1990. The quirks of his background — being conceived in an igloo, born out in the field and having lived his whole life in the Canadian North before going to Chicago in 1994 — as described in the series remain the same…with the added element of his being "pre-trained" by retired Staff Sergeant **Martin Larsden** of the War Hawks in tracking and other skills he would need when he joined the Force. By 2010, Benton — atop being a sergeant and having just been awarded the **Royal Canadian Mounted Police Long Service Medal** (no post-nominal letters set aside for this decoration) for 20 years impeccable service in the Force — has long erased the "taint" of exposing some "dirty" members of his service in the process of investigating his father's murder sixteen years earlier.

As an aside, the "**Stetson of Invulnerability**" comment is a nickname _Due South_ fans give to the hat worn by Benton in the series. As noted in various episodes, Benton wears his hat both in and out of uniform. When he has it on, it seems nothing happens to him; it's only when he has it off that he gets into trouble.

7) The **de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Turbo-Otter** is an upgraded version of one of the most successful models of bush plane. The Turbo-Otter differs from the standard Otter (first built in 1951) by having a turboprop engine — either the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-27 or the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-34 — fitted in lieu of the original Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp radial engine; this is done by Stolairus Aviation of **Kelowna** in the southern interior of British Columbia 250 kilometres east-northeast of Vancouver. The Turbo-Otter began to appear in 2009.

8) The **Canadian Security Intelligence Service** (**CSIS**) is Canada's civilian-run primary national intelligence service, responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Canada's national security, plus conducting operations (covert and overt), within Canada and abroad.

As an aside, **Margaret "Meg" Thatcher** — and yes, she was named after the British prime minister — was a character from _Due South_ who appeared frequently in the second season and became a cast regular in the third and fourth seasons. While she was a potential love interest of Benton Fraser's, the fact that he was a _constable_ (equal to an Army private) while she was an _inspector_ (equal to an Army major) would certainly get in the way of the development of such a relationship (as it often happens in real life despite what Hollywood shows).

9) As noted above, **Lynne Henry**, **Penny Ayala**, **Elizabeth Wakefield**, her twin sister **Jessica Wakefield**, **Amy Sutton**, **Tricia Martin** and **Regina Morrow** are all characters from Francine Pascal's _Sweet Valley High_ series of young adult romance novels published from 1984-99 (in the main series); there were also a lot of side series such as _Sweet Valley Twins_ and the like. The series often credited for reviving the young adult novel industry, _SVH_ centred on the adventures of identical twins (yet emotionally worlds apart) Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield while they were sophomores in high school; the branch-off series looked at the Wakefield twins at different times of their lives (_Sweet Valley Twins_, for example, was set when they were twelve). The main series was written by ghost writers acting under the pen-name "Kate William." While each book could potentially stand out on its own — as note the several paragraphs set aside to describe the studious Elizabeth and the fun-loving Jessica that appears _**in every single novel!**_ — there is continuity to the series as a whole…which, as many fans of the original series (yours truly included) were quick to note, was totally **forgotten** in some glaring places when Mrs. Pascal herself wrote the sequel to _SVH_, _Sweet Valley Confidential_, in 2011. I collected the early part of the main series in the 1980s due to my total LACK of experience in normal high school situations thanks to my attending a military private boy's boarding school from 1980-84.

The stories of Tricia and Regina as noted above are as they appeared in the series. As for the other members of the Kentra's Cliff Avalonians based on the _SVH_ characters (outside Elizabeth and Jessica, of course) mentioned here:

Penny Ayala is the editor of the Sweet Valley High School student newspaper, _The Oracle_. She got a chance to shine in novel #39, _Secret Admirer_.

And Amy Sutton was one of the primary characters in _Sweet Valley Twins_; there, she was Elizabeth's closest friend. She moved to Connecticut after _Twins_, returning back in _SVH_ novel #29, _Bitter Rivals_. By then, Amy had become an unrestrained boy-chaser in Jessica's mould and her friendship with Elizabeth became that of acquaintances since Elizabeth had become very close friends with **Enid Rollins** in the meantime. Amy finally settled down somewhat in novel #75, _Amy's True Love_.

As an aside, **Margo Black** is the infamous "Evil Twin" that — thanks to child abuse and child neglect — targeted Elizabeth to kill her so she could take her place and finally have a happy life. She first appeared in novel #95, _The Morning After_ — this was the novel when the cover format changed from the simple pictures to more complex mosaic scenes and the series switched fully to multiple-novel storylines — and would make her move in novel #100, _The Evil Twin_. Supposedly killed by the end of that story, Margo would make a reappearance in the special "magna" edition story _Return of the Evil Twin_, which appeared between novels #119 (_Jessica's Older Guy_) and #120 (_In Love With the Enemy_).

10) The planet **Hustaros** (demonym **Hustari**) first appeared in _The Senior Year_ story "Dakejinzō's Story." I based the Hustari on the situation depicted in the 1996 novel _Shadow Man_ (ISBN 0-312-86206-7) by Melissa Scott. Like the humans in _Shadow Man_, the Hustari are split into _**five**_ separate genders: Atop men and women, there are **herms** (hermaphrodites, beings with fully functional male AND female sexual organs), **mems** (people who look like men yet have female sexual organs) and **fems** (people who look like women yet have male sexual organs). With this situation, Ms. Scott introduced special pronouns and honorific forms of address for herms, mems and fems as follows (which I replicated with the Hustari):

**Herms**  
Gender Pronoun: **Ʒe**  
Subjective Pronoun: **Ʒim**  
Possessive Pronoun: **Ʒer**  
Objective Pronoun: **Ʒimself**  
Honorific Title: **Serray**

**Mems**  
Gender Pronoun: **Þe**  
Subjective Pronoun: **Þis**  
Possessive Pronoun: **Þim**  
Objective Pronoun: **Þimself**  
Honorific Title: **Serrem**

**Fems**  
Gender Pronoun: **Ðe**  
Subjective and Possessive Pronoun: **Ðer**  
Objective Pronoun: **Ðerself**  
Honorific Title: **Serram**

The first consonants in the above terms are, respectively, the voiced palato-alveolar fricative (as the "s" in "vision"), the voiceless dental fricative (as the "th" in "thin") and the voiced dental fricative (as the "th" in "this").

For your information, in Ms. Scott's novel and on Hustaros, normal men are given the honorific **Ser** and normal women are addressed with **Sera**. The generic honorific used for multiple people such as a married/bonded couple is **Sersi**.

11) The **FISS** (short for "Flight, Invulnerability, Speed, Strength") term was first introduced in the comic book series _PS238_, created by Aaron Williams. In essence, this concept describes people such as the Fawcett Comics-turned-DC Comics superhero **Captain Marvel** (**William Joseph "Billy" Batson**) without the clairvoyance powers and vast intelligence granted by the Wisdom of Solomon.

12) I trust I don't need to introduce the young lady who appears near the end of this part. If you don't know who she is, read the third _Wizards and Avalonians_ story.


	2. Intervention by the Friend of Dragons

_Somewhere… _

_"Where…?" _

_Moaning, a tomboyish yet shapely and muscular woman with short-cut brown hair and bright blue eyes blinked before she gaped in shock on noting that she was as naked as the day she was born in the summer of 1972 at the Haldimand War Memorial Hospital in Dunnville west-southwest of Welland. Taking a moment to consider that, she then looked down at herself…before her jaw dropped on seeing the well-shaped C-cup breasts on her chest, not to mention the total lack of any sort of surgical scars around her groin. Getting up, she allowed her hands to pass up and down her body. "Damn…" _

_"Deanna…?" _

_Deanna's head snapped around before she cried out, "Helena!" _

_Moving over in this sea of orange-red smoke — what was around her reminded Deanna of the Mutara Nebula as shown in_ Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan — _she knelt to help her twin to shakily get up. As the sociology professor moaned, the marital artist took a moment to look her over. Like Deanna, Helena was totally naked…and looked quite different than the nearly anorexic-looking woman she had been before she had been attacked by that weird robot hours before. Possessing breasts the same size as her sister's now, Helena — thanks to her wearing her brown hair long and in a ponytail — was simply_ **gorgeous**…_even if she was still forced to wear reading bifocals; she was allergic to contact lenses. _

_"Damn…!" Deanna breathed out, which made Helena gaze on her. _

_"What…?" her twin asked…before her eyes — and her mouth — dropped in shock on seeing the quite stunningly beautiful woman Deanna had become. "Oh, my…!" _

_"I trust, Mistress Deanna, Wise Mistress Helena, you like your new bodies?" _

_Both women gasped before they spun around to see… _

…_a smiling teenage woman of about fifteen or so, standing about three metres away from them; that was about at the point where the strange energy field —_ Is this the Te'a? _Deanna wondered to herself as she remembered what Lynne Henry and her friends had told her about the curious energy field all Avalonians and hybrids over age twelve could see with their mind's eyes — would begin to obscure her. Said girl was dressed in a medium blue seifuku with a white tie around her collar, calf-high socks and mary janes on her feet. She had silver hair in a bob cut with bangs falling over her forehead, pale blue eyes peeking out of a beautifully-shaped Oriental face. If that wasn't odd enough, said girl held a metal staff with hand grips and what appeared to be a device similar in shape to a bore evacuator on a main tank gun in her left hand, said staff over a metre and a half long with a pulsing spheroid crystal of what appeared to be some mixed type of meson the size of the human head at one end, that topped with a short jabbing spike. _

_"Who are you?" Deanna challenged as she moved to shield Helena with her body. _

_"Regretfully, I cannot give you my name, good lady," the stranger declared as her eyes became hooded with pain. "It is a matter of giri. As a student of the martial arts school now controlled by this world's Protector, you understand that, do you not?" _

_Deanna nodded. The stranger then blinked before she waved her free hand. Instantly, the twins found themselves covered in normal clothing. "Um, thanks," Helena breathed out before she gazed on Deanna. "What happened, Deanna? I was just heading to the post office when that woman came up, called me a 'freak,' then punched me. Now I'm in the mist of the_ **Te'a** _Itself, for God's sake!" She then tensed as she recalled what some Avalonians had told her about the divine nature of This Place. "Sorry!" she called out. _

_The stranger laughed, which made the twins stare wide-eyed at her. "Fret not about that, Wise Mistress! The Wise Lord understands what you just went through!" She then sobered. "You were cowardly attacked by a gynoid — a female-form robot — that had the ability to destroy your body with the injection of nanites. Your loving sister here saw that, then attacked and disabled the beast, though she was gravely wounded herself. The Lady Healer Tracey Tutcho felt she had no choice but to call upon the power of the factory to forge new bodies for the two of you, requesting the assistance of the lovely Lady Healers Tricia Martin and Regina Morrow to see that done. When you were brought about bright Aurora and your new bodies prepared for the_ tre'cha_, the nanites in your old bodies projected a masking screen to try to block the soul-shift. I intervened and ensured it happened." _

_Silence. _

_More silence. _

_Still more silence. _

_And then… _

_"Arigatō," Deanna breathed out in Japanese, standing to attention to give the younger woman a deep bow of thanks. Noting that, Helena bowed in turn. _

_A courtly bow was made in return. "'Twas my pleasure. Now, if you'll both kindly excuse me, I'll be off to ensure the swine that started this learns of his failure. Your friends need you now, both among our sisters of Kentra's Cliff and the warriors of the noble Heroes Alliance that await the call of Her Gracious Majesty to war. Farewell for now." _

_And with that, Deanna and Helena felt their minds fade from the Te'a…_

* * *

Canadian Space Agency Station Aurora, Friday 2 April, an hour after midnight (Eastern time)…

"Oh, thank Lyna! They're waking up!"

A moan escaped Deanna as she reached up for her forehead, then she blinked on sensing fingertips touch her. As a warm wash of energy indicating a telepathic probe being made on her followed, she smiled as Tricia Martin came into her field of vision. "Hey, Doc."

The healer smiled in return before she blinked. "What in Lyna's name…?" she hissed out, which was enough to bring Anne-Marie McLeod over to join them.

"Something wrong, Tricia?" the doctor from 2 Field Ambulance asked.

"Yes! Deanna's somehow undergone the full Awakening, Anne-Marie! It shouldn't have…"

"Same with Helena here, Tricia!" Regina Morrow called over from nearby.

"You okay, Helena?" Deanna called out as she looked over.

Helena was already sitting up on her bed, having been helped by Regina and another of the Kentra's Cliff Avalonians who had been modelled on a _Sweet Valley High_ character, Suzanne Hanlon. "Yes, I'm more than fine. Thanks, Suzanne," the sociology professor said as she smiled at the pretty woman with the brushed-back dark brown hair and hazel eyes, who had just handed her a pair of reading spectacles. "My! I never knew you had people who'd actually wait in the Te'a for someone to undergo _tre'cha_ so they could be guided through the Awakening! Very nice girl, that one…even if she was strange!"

The Avalonians in the room — who had recovered quite quickly from nearly having their brains burned by the energy the nanites in the Hordye twins' bodies had pumped out when the soul-swaps had begun — all blinked in confusion. "Who are you talking about, Helen?" Suzanne asked. "We don't have people who project their minds into the Te'a to help people through the Awakening. That's what intimate therapy is for."

Hearing that phrase made Deanna's and Helena's cheeks colour lightly, though the latter then smiled. "Well, if you're interested in doing that for me, Suzy…!"

The other woman gawked as her friends all laughed. Deanna smiled on seeing Helena flirt with the lovely woman — Suzanne was modelled on a snobby girl who had appeared in only the twenty-seventh novel _Lovestruck_; her template was the target of a crush from star football player Ken Matthews, something that was doomed from the very start — now beside her. She then blinked on feeling a pair of hands on her shoulders. "Hey," she whispered as she looked up, expecting to see Sasha Spencer standing there like a protective mother bear.

Much to her surprise, it was Lynne Henry. "Hey," she called back. "How are…?"

Her voice then cut off…just as Deanna felt her voice catch in her throat as SOMETHING seemed to seize her heart in a vise of solid steel. Silence fell between them as the martial artist felt her vision narrow in focus to just take in Lynne's gentle, soft face, the gorgeous almond-shaped green eyes behind reading glasses and the wild, untamed brown hair framing her head. Lynne herself couldn't turn away from the other woman's more angular features, pierced by sky-blue eyes and framed with dark brown hair cut mannishly short — the gestation tank controls did allow people to choose what sort of hair style one might desire in a bioroid — as if she was in the military. And while Deanna had never considered a career in uniform — her passion for the martial arts was like a tsunami at times — she did associate often with military personnel, even beyond that of the members of the 33rd Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit who, out of a simple quirk of Fate, she had been a classmate of back when they were in high school.

Shaking her head as she tried to clear her thoughts and make her heart stop hammering in her ears, Deanna reached up to gently touch Lynne's lips with her finger. It was THAT act that made the non-psis in the room — Sasha Spencer and Anne-Marie McLeod, not to mention Benton Fraser; the RCMP officer had followed Maria Kennison into the gestation room after they had helped Elizabeth Wakefield and Amy Sutton enter healing trances to fight down the waves of psionic energy emanating from Deanna's and Helena's old bodies — gape in shock. The Avalonians — not to mention a still-stunned Maria and her sister Lynn — were all shuddering as they felt the waves of sheer _**passion**_ blooming from Lynne's heart, that echoed by a cauldron of confusion, disbelief and hope emanating from Deanna. As Lynne's friends then exchanged delighted looks, footsteps then heralded the arrival of Elizabeth and Amy from the cafeteria, holding hands.

"Well," the former then mused. "I would definitely call that the 'time of the month.'"

"Damn straight," the latter said as she wrapped her arm around her lover…

* * *

Canadian Forces Base Kingston, dawn…

Gentle snores echoed through the basement laboratory used by Stephen Caldwell as a flash of energy allowed a beautiful Japanese girl of about fifteen to appear near the main entrance. Gazing around the sanctum sanctorum of the technical genius who would support the successor unit to the famous War Hawks should the Crown summon them to noble combat against the forces of the Dark One wherever they may be needed, Inada Mizuho could only smile in admiration as she held the Staff of Gihan close to her. A glance over to one side of the room revealed a small reception area with two couches, lounge chairs and a coffee table. Laid out on one of the couches was Stephen, who was curled up and asleep; according to the Staff, the marine systems engineer hadn't stopped working on the gynoid that attacked Deanna Hordye and Helena Priella until well past midnight.

With an admiring grin at such a show of devotion to his duties — adherence to which would always earn him the Wise Lord's Favour, she knew — Mizuho walked over to place a take-out large cup of Tim Hortons coffee on the table next to Stephen. Mentally commanding the Staff to place a shield around the cup to ensure the smell of the delightful brew wouldn't wake the poor man up — plus ensure it stayed warm until he did awaken — the would-be warrior-priestess from another dimension and almost ten years in the past turned to gaze on the diagnostic table where the gynoid that had caused yesterday's trouble in Norman Wells now lay. As a disgusted sneer crossed her face, she slowly approached the table, raising the Staff as she made the ancient Sagussan superweapon do a detailed probe into the unmoving machine's body. After a moment, she sighed. "Meson…!"

_**As I have warned you before, Controller, attempts by myself to probe any sort of person or location possessing mesonium that has been charged with mental energy is impossible**_, the Staff reminded her, "speaking" softly into her mind as it could detect that Stephen was sensitive to telepathic communication. _**While I can confirm that whoever created Annabelle Julia Sebastian is monitoring her as we speak, I cannot locate him.**_

«The beast that created this being can overhear anything spoken out close to her?» Mizuho thought out as her grip on the Staff's long shaft tightened.

_**Correct.**_

«Good!» the eighth-place finisher in her class' participation in _The Program_ said with a sneer before she crouched down to hiss into the gynoid's ear, "I know you can hear me, beast! Aye, I speak to the one who crafted the Lady Annabelle, not to her directly! Listen well to this, creature: You _**failed**_! 'Twas _**I**_ who saved Mistress Deanna and Wise Mistress Helena from your attack upon their persons using your construct! That you would behave in such a disgusting fashion towards two such wonderful people — and for such a pitiful excuse as their being born as hermaphrodites and not true women! — simply tells me you are nothing more than a _coward_, to say anything of being a servant of the Dark One!

"Try it again…_**and I will hunt you down to the ends of the Earth itself!**_"

With that, she stood up…and then, in a flash of light, vanished…

* * *

_Now, wasn't THAT interesting…!_

Unseen by Mizuho — though he suspected that the large staff with the obvious mesonium focusing crystal at one end may have sensed it if it was sentient; he HAD felt the slight pressure on his mind indicative of telepathic communication occurring near him thanks to the mesonium in his own bloodstream, injected into him when he was still in his mother's womb — a quite fully awake Stephen Caldwell nimbly rose from the couch. Pausing to smile at the take-out cup of coffee, he stood and stretched before walking over to a nearby wall panel to tap some controls. On the screen over the keys there, a small readout then flashed.

"Oh, nicely done, Miss…"

Smirking, he walked back to the table and picked up the coffee cup. Opening the lid, he took a tentative sip…before smirking on noting that she had got his preferred style of hot java correct: One cream, two sweeteners. As he took a deep breath, he looked up. "Thanks for the coffee, Miss," he called out, giving her a toast as his mind began to roll over what he had just learned from this curious encounter.

Thanks to connections with the magical community — necessary to have given his dealing with the International Mercantile Bank of Gringotts — he knew of the "Friend of Dragons." A strange woman welding a staff powered by all three types of mesonium (in what was believed to be a 10-30-60 percent mix of diamond meson, ruby meson and ebony meson), she had appeared from time to time in magical enclaves across Earth, usually to save someone from some sort of trouble…such as when she first came into public view in Scotland in early March, saving a first-year student at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from breaking her neck since the poor girl forgot about the shifting of the moving stairwells in the residence wing and slipped off the seventh floor landing. The Friend of Dragons' nickname — her real name remained a complete mystery to all who had spoken to her — had come about thanks to the Huldufólk of Iceland; for some weird reason, the European magical press had settled on the simple pronoun '_**her**_' to denote this woman…which was shocking considering all the terms they had dreamt up to use for one Harry Potter over the years.

Not more than a week ago, the Friend of Dragons duelled with a platoon's worth of dragon poachers intent on stealing the eggs of several nesting mothers at the Grímsvötn reserve in the southeast of the island nation. The fight was a total rout; all twenty-nine of the attackers — who had been quick to sense that the teenager trying to stop them was a "muggle golem"; that was the term some people in the traditional European enclaves called Avalonians — were disarmed and bound up in outcroppings of rock for the Úlfhéðnar to arrest. While she was waiting for the proper authorities to take the criminals away, the young woman took the time to converse with the dragons who lived at Grímsvötn; in the wake of that incident, the beautiful flying reptiles loudly asserted in parseltongue — in Iceland, that particular magical gift didn't have the "dark" reputation it had in the United Kingdom thanks to one Lord Voldemort — that the "star angel" who saved their unborn hatchlings was one of the most pure and noble spirits they had ever encountered!

And now she had come HERE…!

Which meant that this strange woman was clearly interested in other sentient beings beyond those gifted to one extent or another with the power of magic.

Why?

Was it Deanna Hordye's connection to — as mystics and magicals worldwide had long respectfully addressed her — the "Protector of All Life" herself?

Did the Friend of Dragons have an intersex friend wherever she came from?

Was it just being a good Samaritan…?

"Mystery," the technical officer breathed out. "Another mystery…"

Well, it would have to wait.

The gynoid on his examination table had priority now.

And thanks to the Friend of Dragons, he had learned said gynoid was linked to a controller somewhere out there. And this controller was most likely responsible for sending the poor machine after Deanna and Helena.

Now he had to find some way to trace that link to the source.

And once he found that source…

…well, he pitied whoever it was that built the gynoid.

Once Sasha Spencer got her hands on this person…

Stephen shuddered before sipping his coffee.

"I don't envy you, whoever you are," he whispered…

* * *

Canadian Forces Base Bagotville (150 kilometres east of north from Québec City), an hour before breakfast…

"Bonjour, Captain! A beautiful day, isn't it?"

The lovely woman in the lime green flight suit with captain's stripes on her shoulders nodded as the other lady — a lieutenant, appearing to be practically fresh out of training at 1 Canadian Forces Flying Training School in Winnipeg — came up to her on the flight line that was normally occupied by the CF-188 Hornets assigned to 425e Escadron Tactique de Chasse, the Alouettes. After an exchange of the casual salutes Air Force personnel did when they weren't on parade in their Number 1 ceremonial uniforms, the hazel-eyed captain with the beautifully styled dark brown hair combed in a right-side part to nearly obscure her left eye smirked. "Get you up too early, Lieutenant?"

"Non," Aurélie Marcelle stated with a shake of her head as they walked away from the Hornets at the east side of the apron where 3e Escadre's aircraft were normally marshaled when they weren't flying and headed towards the west end near Runway 18/36. "Got a good night's sleep after spending who knows how many hours reading the notes passed on to us by our Avalonian friends about being an ACSO for a Starfire. Wish those kids thought of building simulators for us to practice on before we get our hands on a real aircraft. I can't imagine what you're going through right now, Captain."

"The simulators are coming; they're building them right now on Station Aurora," Lynda Warbis mused, her French still flecked with a faint northern English accent marking her having been born and lived until the end of Key Stage Two in the Northamptonshire market town of Wellingborough on the banks of the River Nene. "We should have them in a week. Don't worry about it." Here, she winked. "I cheated a bit."

That made the young air combat systems officer from Val d'Or in the west-central part of Québec blink. "What did you do?" she asked as she gave the veteran pilot a hopeful look.

"I asked one of the volunteer pilots who's working to reform the Flying Lancers to mind-meld with me and give me a good idea of how to work the damned thing."

Aurélie gaped at her before she laughed. "I should have done the same thing!"

Lynda smirked. She had been a captain for seven years now and currently served as flight second-in-command in the Alouettes' Escadrille B, the weapons and tactics element of the fighter squadron. Much to the surprise of her peers, she had volunteered to come fly with the French-language squadron immediately after finishing her training at Cold Lake in northeast Alberta in 1998. Her excuse to those who asked was that Bagotville was much closer to her adopted hometown of Welland near Niagara Falls than Cold Lake — a distance of 1,152 kilometres versus 3,407 kilometres according to Google Maps — and that all of her friends in the military were posted to units east of Lake Superior. Fortunately for her, her French was quite fluent — mastered in high school thanks to a very unique teacher — and she could operate with her peers, most of whom were native Québécois.

Of course, the _**real**_ reason she had to be posted close to Ontario was something only her current commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Nicolas Ménard, was cleared to know.

"Well, let's get aboard and get going," the pilot then mused as she waved her companion down towards the line of twenty sleek warplanes, each of which were roughly the same size as any of the Alouettes' present flying platforms. However, these aircraft resembled a twin-engined, twin-rudder version of the Grumman X-29 research aircraft that came out of the Americans' Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency in the mid-1980s to test things like forward-swept wings and canard control surfaces…though some others had compared this aircraft as being more akin to the Suxój Su-47 Bérkut experimental fighter that came out of Russia in the late 1990s. _No doubt thanks to some spy_, Lynda mused as she gazed on the space-capable point defence fighters designed for starships like _Haida_ which had been brought down from Canadian Space Agency Station Aurora a week before.

The Starfire.

Gazing on the one machine now being looked over by both Terran-Canadian and Avalonian-Canadian technicians — you could tell the latter by they all being exceptionally beautiful women, all of whom were wearing form-fitting jumpsuits in the sky blue and gold colours of the Air Force — Lynda could only shake her head. Her companion was quick to sense the captain's pensive mood. "What is it?"

"To believe two _kids_ built these things," Lynda whispered.

Aurélie blinked before she gazed on the Starfire — all twenty aircraft on the Bagotville apron were earmarked for 425e Escadron as the skylark insignia on the top forward corner of the rudders loudly declared — they were taking up today. Of course, thanks to the events surrounding the Liberation and its aftermath — especially given what happened two weeks ago in Tomobiki when Urusian pirates from the planet Konton came to kidnap some pretty bioroids to have as their own sex slaves — the military forces of every nation on Earth were scrambling like mad to accept, adopt and understand the incredible technology the Avalonians brought with them in mid-February as quickly as possible. The Starfire — officially designated the CSF-196 in Canadian service; the planes in front of Lynda and Aurélie had their serial numbers on their rudders, noses and wings — was the hottest item on the wish lists of air force officers from Washington to Moscow. Designed to operate off the Type One space battleship, the sleek fighter had incredible range for a sub-warp spacecraft, could carry an impressive ten tonnes of ordnance on its wings and fuselage — which, in space, wouldn't matter thanks to the lack of gravity — and was quite nimble in space and atmosphere as the American Navy had already proved with the first batch of F-96S fighters delivered to Naval Air Station Patuxent River at the start of March.

And while the aircraft's design and construction origins were quite unusual — the Starfires were drafted and constructed in just several MONTHS on an alien factory starbase located by two kidnap victims of the Ipraedies a year ago; the primary designer, Ki Tsukihana, was just _**thirteen**_ years old…and his friend who helped moderate some of Tsukihana's other ideas for the Type One starships and all the accompanying aircraft and other equipment that came with them, Hakaru Ayami, was _**fifteen**_! — in comparison to "normal" warplanes, that they came virtually FREE OF CHARGE was something that had made military bean counters across the planet weep for joy at such a display of largesse.

Especially since all future orders for Starfires to be constructed in Canada would be executed in coordination with Bombardier Aerospace in Dorval outside Montréal.

And the Canadian government planned to get many more.

The fact that the Avalonians now living in the country now were proposing the reformation of TWELVE Air Force squadrons that had served in Canada in World War Two — as elements of an expanded Air Force Reserve — and tasked to the space tactical fighter role definitely guaranteed that many more Starfires would be coming down from Aurora sooner or later.

One of them, to be designated "126e Escadron Tactique de Chasse d'Espace" — known in World War Two as the "Flying Lancers" — was proposed to be based outside _Québec City_ to augment the Alouettes!

"Good morning, Captain. Lieutenant."

"'Morning," Lynda responded as she and Aurélie returned the salute of the senior technician working on Starfire 276, Warrant Officer Chris Moreau. "How's she look?"

The native of Sherbrooke in the Estrie region of Québec east of Montréal shook his head in awe as he gazed back on the space-capable fighter. "It's like discovering you were blind your whole life by having the blinds ripped away from your eyes, ma'am," the aviation systems technician — he was a section leader in the Alouettes' maintenance flight — stated with a tired breath. His fatigue was understandable; it had been just as hard for the ground crews to adjust to the new technology that had been literally dumped into their laps over the last month as it was for those who would have to pilot them…not to mention the officers who would have to be pulled from CC-130 Hercules, CP-140 Auroras and CH-124 Sea Kings to serve as back-seat weapons control officers. "But these girls have been very patient with us, walking us through everything." He waved to the Avalonians, some of who were guiding Moreau's co-workers in prepping the fighter for its inaugural flight. "Be glad to get them formed up into a formal squadron finally."

Lynda nodded. The Avalonians who moved into the Saguenay region of Québec over the last month had formed a committee to organize an entire reserve _**air wing**_ to augment 3e Escadre in almost every aspect possible. One part of the new wing — being tentatively designated "33e Escadre" — would be an air maintenance squadron which would serve as the ground-based second-line repair unit; no doubt, the girls working with Warrant Officer Moreau and his subordinates would join that squadron when it was authorized by Ottawa. Other ground elements proposed to become part of the new wing included a signals intelligence squadron to help control the mass sea of sensors floating in space between Mars and Ceres that would warn people on Earth of potential outside contact, an air communications and control squadron that could be deployed anywhere to help control flying squadrons in the field, a construction engineer squadron to help in airfield repair and building both at home and abroad, a health services support squadron to serve as a small mobile field hospital with attached air ambulance, a military police squadron to provide security and law enforcement services and a logistics support squadron to ensure all units in the wing were swimming in everything from food and clothing to fuel, weapons and spare parts.

As for the flying units, atop the Flying Lancers…!

"Oh, my God! They're already flying one of those things?!"

Lynda's head snapped over to Moreau…then, noting where he was looking, gazed up into the morning sky before her jaw dropped. "Is that…?!"

"Starhawk," Aurélie provided.

The pilot and the aviation systems technician gazed at the air combat systems officer, noting the smile on her face. The CSQ-185 Starhawk — called the RQ-5S in the United States Air Force — was a space-capable version of the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk long range reconnaissance drone, designed to allow the space around Earth out to Jupiter to be patrolled without the necessity of sending manned fighters. Even if the approach vectors of attacking alien forces could be easily predicted thanks to information the Avalonians had seized from the Niphentaxians and peacefully obtained from the Noukiites, there was still almost twenty-three _**octillion**_ cubic kilometres of space to cover. The attack of the Konton pirates on the night of the ides of March — even if the attackers had, thanks to VERY faulty intelligence arranged by Moroboshi Hiromi, not expected the sheer hell they faced when they confronted Moroboshi Ataru in Tomobiki after enduring a virtual blizzard of incoming fire from dozens of space stations and starships — had shown military planners across Earth how stupid it was to leave _anything_ to chance.

"Captain Warbis?!"

Lynda looked over before returning the salute of another lieutenant, this one a man. He was also dressed in a "poopy suit" even if his wings marked him as one of Aurélie's trade. "Sorry I'm late, ma'am," he apologized. "I'm Lieutenant Louis Gerais. I'm detached from the Black Knights as ACSO adviser to the 33e Escadre Committee."

"When did you get posted to Gatineau?" Lynda asked as she shook his hand; she had been detached from the Alouettes to help in the rebirth of 414 (Black Knight) Electronic Warfare Support Squadron in Gatineau near Ottawa the previous winter.

"About a month after you left," Louis answered. "They're still crying."

That made the Northamptonshire native laugh. She had a standing invitation from 410 (Cougar) Tactical Fighter (Operational Training) Squadron in Cold Lake to return back as an instructor; that was practically given the day she had passed that half-year long course at the head of her class. If her hidden duties for the 33rd Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit hadn't got in the way, she might have gone back to fly with the Cougars and help hammer future generations of fighter pilots into proper shape years ago. Which struck her as odd. Like Sasha Spencer and Lorrie Melanko, Lynda was a FISS-type metahuman; in her specific case, she had the ability to draw her power from sunlight like Superman himself to nearly match _**her**_ in overall physical power. Thus, there was really no need for Lynda to stay geographically close to her "other" commanding officer, Maria Kennison; text messaging was as fast as telepathy — the intelligence officer, if she pushed it, could reach out to two thousand kilometres to mentally "speak" to a friend; to a stranger, the range dropped to half — and Lynda could be in Kingston in the literal blink of an eye once she got clear of co-workers and found a private place to change into the temperate woodland CADPAT pattern skintight jumpsuit Stephen Caldwell had personally created for her for when she needed to use her powers in an overt manner.

Lynda then introduced Louis to Aurélie before asking, "What brings you up to see me?"

"The girls hoping to form 162e Escadron are currently controlling that Starhawk over our heads," he explained. "It'll be a chase plane for you when you go up into orbit."

Lynne blinked in surprise. Another of the flying squadrons proposed to be reformed as part of 33e Escadre was 162e Escadron de Reconnaissance d'Espace, the Ospreys. Back in World War Two, the unit was formed in Nova Scotia as a flying boat bomber reconnaissance squadron which chased German U-Boats from their base at Yarmouth until being deployed first to Iceland and then to Scotland in 1944 to work with the Royal Air Force's Coastal Command. The Ospreys became one of two squadrons in the Royal Canadian Air Force to have a Victoria Cross bestowed on one of its personnel during that war. In the early summer of 1944, Flight Lieutenant David Hornell posthumously won the highest valour decoration in the Commonwealth for flying his Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina — known in Canadian service as the "Canso" — into a hail of anti-aircraft fire to sink U-1225 near the Faroe Islands; he would then be forced to ditch his wrecked aeroplane and, thanks to there being one serviceable dinghy to hold a crew of ten, died almost a day later from wounds and exposure to the elements. Because of F/L Hornell's bravery in action, the planned "head shed" for the reformed Ospreys — to be located at l'Aéroport Municipal d'Alma in the city of the same name near Lac Saint-Jean sixty kilometres west-northwest of Bagotville — would be officially christened _L'Édifice Capitaine d'Aviation-David-Ernest-Hornell, VC_.

The pilot then blinked again as the second part of Louis' statement came back to her. "A _reconnaissance drone_ as a _**chase plane**_?!" she sarcastically asked.

"Colonel Ménard got the message about your friend, Captain."

That made Lynda jolt before she blushed. "What friend?" Aurélie asked.

"We're going to Station Aurora as part of the test flight, Lieutenant," Lynda explained. "Two friends of mine living in the Territories got badly hurt and just underwent body-swaps late last night; they're friends with some of the Avalonians still on the station and they helped save them. Since we'd need to know how to land on one of those things as part of the acceptance trials, I'll do that today. Gives me a chance to look in on Deanna and Helena, make sure they're alright before they head back home."

"Business and pleasure all at once," Louis mused. "Where else can you do that?"

"Is there going to be a reconnaissance squadron for 7e Escadre?" Aurélie asked.

He smirked. "We could ask them!"

That made Lynda and Aurélie laugh before a voice called out, "Captain! She's ready!"

Noting that one of the Avalonian-Canadian technicians was calling out to her from a work ladder close to the cockpit, Lynda sighed. "It's post time, Lieutenant," she stated to Aurélie before gazing at Louis. "Make sure that thing doesn't run into my tail pipes, Lieutenant!" she hissed as she nodded up towards the orbiting Starhawk.

"Oui!" both lieutenants chanted…

* * *

Canadian Space Agency Station Aurora, that moment…

A tired groan escaped Deanna Hordye as her eyes opened. "What a weird dream…" she moaned…before her eyes went wide on sensing the _very_ unfamiliar feeling of a woman's body — and a NAKED woman's body at that! — pressing into her left side.

Her head then hesitantly turned to gaze upon a mass of shaggy brown hair framing a peaceful face with a slightly long nose, jutting chin…

"Lynne…" she croaked out.

It then all came back to her. Coming into Norman Wells from her normal afternoon jog around Jackfish Lake to see some strange girl — who looked somewhat like Lorrie Melanko, Deanna had mused at the time — viciously gut-punch her twin sister, calling her a "freak." Drop-kicking the attacker before a scalding torrent of pain overwhelmed her. Waking up in Tricia Martin's medical station on Aurora to find out she had lost her right foot thanks to nanites; the woman who had attacked Helena Priella had been a _gynoid_ of all things. Her horror had been then compounded when she learned Helena had lost a good portion of her digestive system thanks to said gynoid. Realizing then that for both of them, there was only one solution to get them back on their feet whole and healthy: Body-swapping and soul-shifting to become Avalonians. How it happened…which triggered a hidden surprise from the nanites in their old bodies: A powerful psionic energy wave that drove their Avalonian friends to their knees in agony. Waking up in the _**Te'a**_ Itself to encounter a strange teenager with an energy staff, one who claimed to have saved both their lives from whoever sent the gynoid after them. Enduring the Awakening, then recovering consciousness…to find herself gazing into Lynne Henry's face.

And then…

Then…

Deanna shuddered while parts of her body heated up as the memory of the intensive wave of pure, sheer _passion_ she sensed from the replica of her favourite young adult fictional character slammed once more into her conscious mind. How that had woken up barely-developed response feelings in the martial artist from Ontario; thanks to her being born as an intersex — a "true hermaphrodite" as people like her were once called — she had next to NO real experience in dealing with the normal sensations people experienced on encountering a potential mate, male or female. How Amy Sutton and Elizabeth Wakefield came in at that time to declare that Deanna and Lynne had experienced their "time of the month"; that was the popular nickname Avalonians used for when they felt the overwhelming urge one felt on encountering one's future _marei'cha_. And while living with Lynne for the rest of her life was something that didn't bother Deanna, the fact that the former possessed the same name as and was physically constructed as a perfect replica of one of the latter's favourite fictional characters…complicated matters.

The Lynne Henry that appeared in the twenty-eighth _Sweet Valley High_ novel that was first published in 1986, _Alone in The Crowd_, was a tall, awkward and painfully shy girl who had been convinced for the longest time that she was a nobody who would never win the interest of any man. The only good thing going for her at that time of her life was the fact that she was a budding songwriter, expressing herself in a beautiful tune she called "Outside, Looking In," which she entered anonymously for a contest run by the Droids, a local amateur band. In the novel, said song won the interest of Guy Chesney, the Droids' keyboard player…and as it often happened in most young adult romance novel series published at that time — with their emphasis on easy-to-understand plot-lines — Guy became instantly attracted to the person who wrote such a beautiful composition. Thanks to the unknowing help of Elizabeth Wakefield, one of the twin sisters who were the stars of _Sweet Valley High_, Guy learned of Lynne and they became a couple.

The Avalonian modelled on that character had worked for eighteen years at an orphanage at Kentra's Cliff on Phentax Twenty-one, one of the outer colony worlds in that three-star system. She had been one of a series of replicas based on the _Sweet Valley_ female characters created at the behest of Herana odai-Hastrah, who had fallen in love with the series as soon as observers based in North America had transmitted copies of it back home. She wanted companions — in essence, elder sister figures; Herana herself was an only child and had lost her parents to Hifuto Syndrome when she was a baby, fallen under the care of her maternal grandmother Kyran dai-Pashrel — physically based on the incredible artwork Tallahassee artist James Mathewuse did for the series from the first novel _Double Love_ all the way to the ninety-fourth novel _Are We In Love?_ After that, Lynne had told Deanna when they went on a tour of Norman Wells three weeks ago, the series format change to multiple-book storylines — not to mention the change of cover formats from the simple yet elegant portrait covers to multiple-scene mosaics painted by Bruce Emmett — pretty much turned Herana off the series.

And she got them.

A total of _**forty-three**_ of them!

_Talk about being greedy…not that I'm complaining…!_

The Avalonian version of Lynne Henry had been meticulously crafted and programmed to project the best qualities of her fictional template, especially her ability to compose music; unlike many Niphentaxians when it came to the bioroid race, Grandmother Kyran and Herana didn't want drones who would simply do as they were told at the proverbial crack of the whip. And while Lynne and the others of the Kentra's Cliff group of Avalonians had to pretend they were docile to the authorities from Phentax Two whenever they came to ensure all was kosher, they had quite the free hand in dealing with their charges; like the other outer colony worlds of the Phentax system, the harshness of Phentax Twenty-one forced the colonists — both Niphentaxians and Avalonians — to adopt a more egalitarian and accepting viewpoint towards each other as they cooperated to tame a wild planet and make it habitable. And while Lynne couldn't overcome her charges' tragic inability to create their own things, she did win the hearts of many; she became part of the local version of the Droids with Dana Larson, Emily Mayer, Andrea Slade and the Porter sisters Johanna and Julie, all of them entertaining their charges with all types of music.

It totally shocked Deanna when she learned Lynne was a fan of _**big band music**_!

The Liberation hadn't been as ugly or as tragic for the Kentra's Cliff Avalonians as it had been for some others Deanna had heard of. When the Noukiites and Yehisrites launched the attack on Phentax Twelve and the Church of Lum authorities overreacted like they did, Herana — Kyran had died of natural causes six years ago — guided her friends and her charges towards a friend's mansion; the recall whisked Lynne and her friends away within a minute of the orphans and their guardian making it to safety. Reports from the Intergalactic News Network afterwards stated that few from Phentax Two had made it to Phentax Twenty-one and were easily put down; the colony's governor — with the vast majority of the colonists behind her — soon declared for the rebel government formed by a Church of Hollywood high priestess, Miree ot'ndai-Bohgar, within days of the Liberation.

"'Morning…"

Deanna tensed on hearing that tired voice before gazing once more on Lynne, who's almond-shaped green eyes were now opening to stare fondly at her. The martial artist felt her cheeks heat as her new girlfriend's eyes locked on her before she leaned her head back on her pillow. "I'm so afraid I'm going to screw this up, Lynne," she whispered.

Lynne smirked. She and her friends had dealt with the odd orphan born as an intersex over the last decade and more. Once Tricia Martin had detected the odd quirks in their new friends' DNA that indicated what they really were, it had been quite easy for all of them to adjust themselves to accept Deanna's and Helena's lack of understanding or response to certain emotional stimuli. And now that the Hordye twins were proper women genetically — thus having no need anymore to deal with things like hormone replacement therapy — both of them would need a LOT of help in adjusting to their new lives.

Of course, Avalonians had _loads_ of time.

Lynne intended to take all the time needed to help Deanna rediscover herself.

"You're not the only one who's afraid," the musician said with a smile.

That made the martial artist perk before she nodded. Almost all Avalonians had been blocked by the loyalty lock program forced on them when they were created from seeking out bond-mates as their genetic ancestors had done on Sagussa thousand of years ago. And while the actual number of instances _marei'cha_ happened in the wake of the Liberation hadn't been the insane storm some people predicted it would be once that loyalty lock was gone, there had been a steady stream of couples heading into municipal offices across Canada to formally marry. Among the Kentra's Cliff group, there was one couple bound in _marei'cha_: Regina Morrow and Molly Hecht. The latter was based on a minor character who had been a drug addict and had hosted the party where the former overdosed on cocaine as depicted in the fortieth novel _Over the Edge_; Deanna always hated how Molly had been treated in the following novel, _Outcast_, even by her family. Of course, the Avalonian Regina and Molly didn't have to worry about such things…even if the latter had ALWAYS taken a protective stance towards the former since they day they emerged from gestation.

"Where will we go from here?" Deanna asked as she absently reached up to gently thread her fingers through Lynne's hair. "I mean, you guys haven't decided where you'd want to live. I don't want to leave Helena…and she wouldn't care to move out of Norman Wells; she's just been there too long. What do we do…?"

Almost in answer, a chime echoed through the room. "Come!" Lynne called out.

The door opened, revealing what would make some people initially think was Elizabeth Wakefield…until they took note of the fully free-flowing hair and the more stylish clothing. "Hey, Jess," Deanna said with a grin. "Missed the fun last night."

"So I heard," Jessica Wakefield noted as she leaned against the open doorway, crossing her arms. "All of us on the station felt what happened." To occupy her time while she waited for her friends to finally decide where in Canada they were going to live — Jessica herself was dead-set on moving to a small village on the Niagara River not too far from the famous Falls, where _**she**_ had been born in 1867 — the younger Wakefield twin volunteered as a technology guide for the Terran staff of the station, most of whom had come up from the Canadian Space Agency's headquarters site in Longueuil across the Saint Lawrence River from Montréal, not to mention the David Florida Laboratory outside Ottawa. Some of her friends such as Lila Fowler, Cara Walker, Amy Sutton, Jean West, Sandra Bacon and Maria Santelli also helped out in being "tech guides" for their new friends; none of them had been in dangerously close range to the nanites in Deanna's and Helena's old bodies when the _tre'cha_ had begun the previous evening and everything went crazy.

"No one got seriously hurt, I hope," Deanna asked.

"No, not even your telepath friend," Jessica said with a grin and a wink.

The martial artist groaned. "Jess…!"

"Hey! It's not OUR fault you shook our hands without remembering to ki mask your thoughts from us!" Jessica protested as her grin widened.

Deanna blinked before nodding. "True…"

* * *

Outside Norman Wells, breakfast (Eastern time: Two hours before lunch)…

"And that is the last of it!"

Hearing that relieved statement from their host, Annie Whitman could only smile as she exchanged a knowing look with her adopted sister, Cheryl Thomas. They and Helena Priella had beamed down from Station Aurora to the Hordye twins' cabin located outside the small urban area of Norman Wells so that the sociology professor could get to the medicinal cabinet and toss out everything that she and Deanna had taken over the years to help them be girls in body as they were in their minds. Said drugs were now in a garbage bag that would be taken to the town dump and incinerated; one of the first things the Avalonians had brought with them when they moved into the region over the last month were "green" refuse-removal technology to help in environmental cleanup. Already, the overall level of background radiation in and around Norman Wells had noticeably dropped according to one of Helena's co-workers; if the current pace of cleanup was kept up, that selfsame co-worker predicted that the whole of the Sahtú Region would possibly be restored to the way it had been at the start of the twentieth century within a few _**months**_!

_And to believe it's all being done without people having to go to Ottawa or Yellowknife with a hat out to get some money_, the sociology professor from Vancouver — even if she had been born at the Haldimand War Memorial Hospital in Dunnville — mused to herself.

"I'll take the garbage out," Cheryl volunteered.

Helena nodded as the dark-skinned woman with the very short-trimmed curly black hair and the soulful brown eyes took the bag from her, then headed out of the cabin. Before the professor could consider what to do next, she felt a pair of arms wrap around from behind, drawing her back into Annie's embrace. "Anne!" Helena squawked out, though she didn't resist the warm hug her new friend was now giving her.

A pair of forest green eyes gazed into Helena's bright blue ones from a lovely face framed in tomboyish-cut, wavy dark brown hair. As she gazed into Annie's face, the professor tried not to gulp too much as her awakening empathy — to help the Hordye sisters adjust to their new psionic powers, Tricia Martin injected a special inhibitor drug into them that would lower their sensitivity to a quarter of what was normal — felt the mixture of serious attraction and boiling lust in Annie's heart.

Which, Helena thought, was quite ironic given who Annie's template was.

The fictional Annie Whitman made her full debut in the tenth _Sweet Valley High_ novel first published in 1984, _Wrong Kind of Girl_. Known as "Easy Annie" by her detractors — including Jessica Wakefield — she was a girl who seemed to fall in love with every boy that seemed to cross her path at the drop of a hat. And while nothing inappropriate happened on those dates — given that the novel series was geared for a young audience, the topic of sex was kept VERY low key; such wouldn't really change until the ninetieth book _Don't Go Home With John_ came out in 1992 — it didn't stop the Sweet Valley High School rumour mill from going overtime on her. This drove Jessica to try to do everything to block Annie from becoming a cheerleader in _Wrong Kind of Girl_; that drove the latter to nearly kill herself. Of course, Jessica was quick to change her mind in the wake of finding THAT out, so Annie got on the cheerleading squad. She would eventually settle down and date a couple of boys throughout the series.

Unlike Deanna's favourite character, who only got one appearance on the cover of a novel in _Alone In the Crowd_, Annie appeared three times: _Wrong Kind of Girl_, _Cheating to Win_ (novel #77) and _Stepsisters_ (novel #93). It was the last novel that introduced Annie's future stepsister, Cheryl Thomas. Of course, Herana odai-Hastrah wanted replicas of all the girls who had appeared on those covers, so two Avalonians became Annie Whitman and Cheryl Thomas. Both became effective sisters over the years as they worked at the orphanage at Kentra's Cliff, as close to each other as Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield were. Also like the others of their group, Annie and Cheryl developed in much different ways than their templates did. While part of the "entertainment squad" — a nod towards the Sweet Valley High cheerleading team from the novels — under Jessica's overall charge at the orphanage, Annie was also the unofficial guidance counsellor, helping their older charges adjust into life as adults and productive members of their society. Cheryl was the resident chef of the group, making culinary delights that — if Herana and her grandmother hadn't insisted on intensive physical exercise and playing for the orphans — would have stacked the pounds on people quite quickly.

Helena was shaken out of her reminiscing by a pair of soft lips gently caressing her own, which made her swoon for a moment before she allowed Annie to deepen the kiss. After a moment of their mouths conforming and tongues duelling, they pulled apart to gaze once more into the other person's eyes. Annie remained calm while Helena's cheeks were starting to redden quite profoundly and her breathing had picked up. "Hey, don't worry about it," the former whispered as she rubbed the latter's lips. "I know how hard this is for you. It's a whole new beginning for you, just like it is for Deanna. Relax and let things happen, okay? It'll be strange at first, but you'll get used to it."

Helena hummed as she moved herself around to return the other woman's hug. "And what do you suggest we do, Doctor Whitman?" she gently teased; as a way of compensating for her frequent lack of feelings concerning dating anyone, the sociology professor was a passionate reader of romance novels, especially anything from Barbara Delinsky.

"You made me jealous last night, Professor Priella," Annie gently scolded.

"Because I slept with Suzanne and not you?"

A nodding hum replied. "Well, we could make up for it," Helena noted before her cheeks reddened even more. "Anne…I've never really done this before."

"I know, I know," Annie purred as she leaned over to gently trace her lips on her host's cheek, which made Helena's eyes widen as that feather-soft touch sent a jolt of pure — well, _something_! — through her body from her head to her groin. "Just relax…"

Helena tried not to moan as the other woman began to kiss, lick and suckle her right ear, her legs instantly squeezing together — like almost all Terran-turned-Avalonians, she didn't follow the native practice of not wearing any form of foundation garments save for panties when one's period came on — as a strange yet welcome warmth flooded her lower body. Annie's hands wrapped slowly around her host's waist to come together at the small of the back, neither moving to untuck the professor's shirt or slip into her jeans. Which was understandable; like Deanna, Helena had experienced little in the way of any form of sex — the times she had taken someone to bed back in high school could be counted on one hand with fingers to spare, the situation in university had been pretty much the same and she had been totally celibate since being hooded for her bachelors degree in sociology at the University of British Columbia — and was experiencing feelings and sensations that were as alien to her as Annie herself could be said to be.

On the other hand, Annie was no stranger to sex. While she and the others of her group of Avalonians had NEVER done anything inappropriate with their charges — falling back on their genetically-forced deference to children which ensured that no bioroid would idly stand by and allow any sort of child abuse to happen, people like Annie never could even _conceive_ of being passionate with any of their older charges; atop that, watching the "kids" all grow up over the years created a sense of family between the Avalonians and their charges, which reinforced the "no hanky panky" rule women like Annie religiously followed — over the years, they were passionate lovers with each other whenever the mood struck them. Over time, many couples developed in their group, chief amongst them being Regina Morrow and Molly Hecht, Tricia Martin and Cara Walker, Elizabeth Wakefield and Amy Sutton, Enid Rollins and Robin Wilson and DeeDee Gordon and Patty Gilbert. Annie had pretty much done "it" with all her friends save Cheryl, but there had been no one to really spark her interest, much less a certain genetic trigger in her mind.

Helena moaned as Annie's lips began to trail down the side of her neck…

…before a loud knock echoed from the main door of the cabin!

Both women jolted before Annie groaned. "Great timing, whoever that is!"

Helena tried not to grin too much as she pulled away from her guest. "I'll get it." With that, she walked out of the small bathroom into the living room, heading to the front door. The cabin she and her twin shared was located on the unnamed road that connected Norman Wells to both MacKinnon Territorial Park and Jackfish Lake; it was sited about halfway between the park campgrounds and the lake. Helena had picked the place because it offered solitude and a chance to experience life as the Sahtú themselves lived it these days. That had earned her respect from the local population, which guaranteed her privacy whenever she needed it. When Deanna had come to join Helena full-time, the former's connection to the Protector of All Life through the Tensei-ryū automatically gained her respect from the natives, especially the Sahtú elders who were the true power behind the regional government controlling this part of the Territories. Of course, it didn't hurt that Deanna was willing to go out and help members of the Sahtú locate lost children who got far too curious for their own good and went off to explore the woods; Helena still couldn't believe that her twin had actually _**ki punched**_ a GRIZZLY BEAR she caught threatening a girl — the granddaughter of Aurora Bayha, one of the senior elders of the Sahtú — who had wandered close to where the animal was trying to feed eight months ago.

Opening the door, she looked before gaping. "Ursula?!"

"Hey, Helen!" a woman's voice called back.

Annie stepped out of the bathroom to see Helena wave in a woman who was physically the same age as the other Canadian Forces officers who had come up to Station Aurora the previous evening. However, in this woman's case, she wasn't wearing CADPATs but the almost-black Naval Combat Dress that was the work uniform of members of that element of the Forces while at sea. Like all of her friends, Annie knew who this woman was: Lieutenant (Navy) Ursula Patton, a member of the regular support staff assigned to the ship's company of H.M.C.S. _York_, the naval reserve division in Toronto. An adopted member of the Haida who had grown up in the village of Massett on the Queen Charlotte Islands — Helena had heard rumours about a pending name-change for that archipelago to "Haida Gwaii" as part of a piece of reconciliation legislation the British Columbia provincial government would soon pass — she was another would-be member of the 33rd Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit. Possessing magically-induced FISS-type powers — in much the same manner as _**her**_ fictional inspiration, Captain Marvel — Ursula had the ability to fly from Toronto to Norman Wells in the blink of the eye and had done it many times; Annie knew Helena had been let in on the secret concerning 33 CSWU…which couldn't be avoided as First Nations mystics knew of the Protector's plans concerning her favoured students should the horrid spectre of general war once more loom over Canada.

"I just got the word from Maria about what happened to you and Deanna," the raven-haired, brown-eyed Ursula — who, in the opinion of all the Kentra's Cliff Avalonians, had the prettiest smile of any of Deanna's old high school classmates — said as she gave the other woman a detailed look over with her eyes…and no doubt, Annie mused, her mystical senses. "Looks like you pulled through it okay. Body-swap?"

"No choice; that thing that attacked me destroyed my liver and a good part of my digestive system," Helena said as she closed the door behind her new guest.

Ursula winced. "Well, Stephen's on the case, so we'll get our answers sooner or later," she said before her eyes fell on the tomboyish woman who was standing suspiciously close to the doorway leading to the Hordye twins' shared bedroom. "Who…?" she asked as an eyebrow arched and her eyes fell once more on a now-blushing Helena.

"A friend! A friend!" the sociology professor wailed as she waved her hands.

Annie laughed as Ursula smirked…

* * *

Petawawa Point (on the shore of the Ottawa River across the Petawawa River from CFB Petawawa), that moment…

"You recognized the gynoid?!"

"Yes, I did," Lorrie Melanko stated as she picked her way through her yearbooks. "Didn't you notice that, Maria? How similar that girl looked to me?"

Maria Kennison — who had beamed down from Station Aurora after spending a night nursing a headache from _whatever_ it was that had slammed into her mind shields with the force of a raging tsunami while she was trying to protect the Avalonians moving to help Deanna and Helena recover from said gynoid's attack via body-swapping — blinked before she nodded. "Same general hair and eye colour, similar facial structure…" she whispered — part of her training under _**her**_ all those years ago was to recognize such fundamental biometric data with her eyes; as she had told Maria, one couldn't depend on telepathy alone — before gazing on the artillery officer. "You think she was at Centennial when we were there?"

"A couple grades behind us, but yes," Lorrie mused as she pulled out the collection of five yearbooks dating from when she was a student at Welland Centennial High School from 1986-91. Picking out the yearbook from 1988-89 — when she was in Grade 11 — she began flipping through the collected pictures of students, taking a moment to do a deep scan of the girls' portraits. After a couple of minutes, she stopped…before her jaw dropped in shock. "Oh, my Lord…" she breathed out. "Maria, look at this!"

The intelligence officer took the book in hand and gazed on the picture her friend was pointing out. A moment later, her jaw was on the floor. "My God! I'd swear this was your twin sister if you were the same age! How on Earth did we NOT notice her?!"

Lorrie grinned. "You were a little busy at the time, Maria."

That made her friend blush. Maria's telepathic abilities blossomed forth in the fall term of Grade 9, bombarding her with the mental "voices" of _thousands_ of people almost all at once. Try as she might, she couldn't shut that wave of noise pounding every synapse in her brain off. It got to the point that — around the time of Frosh Week — she telepathically bellowed a desperate scream for help…which was heard by someone well over three thousand kilometres away. Next thing the just-awakened telepath knew, she woke up in the school's small first aid station with a woman appearing to be in her mid-twenties, possessing short-cut dark brown hair and deep, ageless blue eyes, gazing down on her.

"_You seem to be in quite the fix right now, Miss Kennison. I'm Alexa Hawke. If you're willing, my friends and I will be willing to help you tame that gift of yours._"

On noting that there was then nothing save blissful _silence_ in her mind, Maria broke down and wept, finding herself immediately embraced by the older woman as she cried and railed against the cruel Fates for turning her into something she didn't want to be.

A _**metahuman**_.

The stark lessons of the battles between the War Hawks and the Liberty Legion — not to mention the odd independent "mystery man"…as metahuman adventurers were known to the general public — on the Allied side and the Übermenschen and the metahuman warriors of Japan's Black Dragon Society on the Axis side proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

And there was NO WAY in HELL that Maria Kennison wanted to be a metahuman!

Especially a telepath like Charles Xavier or Jean Grey from the _X-Men_ comics.

But it was too late; her powers had activated…

…just as — as Alexa would reveal to her after Maria calmed down and began to seriously consider what was being offered to her — the man who had empowered her with such abilities while she was _within her mother's womb_ planned all along!

Realizing that she had been _**manipulated**_ into becoming a metahuman — and at a time in her life when she couldn't possibly resist such! — Maria immediately accepted Alexa's offer.

And then came the revelation of who "Alexa Hawke" really was…

"Hey!"

Maria started before she sighed. "Remembering when Dean saved my sanity."

Lorrie gazed at her before she giggled. "I remember the days before that. How you just shied away from everyone — even Lynn — and plugged your ears even if there wasn't any real loud noise nearby." She shook her head. "Couldn't understand it at all. Many of us who transferred in from Fitch Street thought you were just weird."

The other woman nodded. Prior to going to Centennial, the Kennison twins had lived with their parents in Port Colborne south of Welland, where their father Nathan worked at the INCO plant and the twins themselves attended a local elementary school; by the time Maria and Lynn had reached the end of the eighth grade, Nathan Kennison had saved enough money to purchase his own car and thus could travel to work instead of walking (as he had done when he worked for Stelco in Hamilton when his daughters were born in the autumn of 1972 up to when he was laid off due to lack of work ten years later). "I did seem that, didn't I?" she rhetorically asked before smirking. "Remember afterwards?"

Lorrie laughed. In the wake of Maria finding herself the personal apprentice of Canada's greatest soldier — and said soldier's three closest friends, who came along shortly after that fateful meeting during Frosh Week — to tame her capabilities, the budding telepath seemed to be literally on Cloud Nine. That upset some of her peers, who thought the "brat from Port" was getting too big for her britches. Before they could try to upbraid Maria for her behaviour — which was winning the interest of several boys, including budding hunks like James Graham, Thomas Fenris and Jimmy Woodson — a tomboyish, mannish girl named Deanna Hordye and her best friend/next door neighbour Sasha Spencer quickly intervened to make the selfish bitches back off. After that, it was discovered by _**her**_ that James, Thomas, Jimmy and Sasha were ALSO metahumans — along with a group of others who had streamed into Centennial from Fitch Street Elementary School a kilometre to the southeast — and _**she**_ and her friends realized they literally had their work cut out for them.

"_This is almost like the bloody time we tried to teach the Legion how to be decisively proactive in dealing with the Übermenschen!_" a certain famous RCMP staff sergeant groused when the four most famous service personnel in the history of the Canadian military realized the sheer _scale_ of what one Grigori Szczepan Wyszynski had instigated in the early 1970s.

Of course, _**she**_ was not deterred by the numbers of metahumans that — by sheer LUCK! — had been dropped into her lap. Since these kids were all Grade 9 students — which put them at around fifteen-sixteen years of age — they were still young enough to be trained "properly" in the use of their abilities without either the set complacency of adulthood or the wild lack of discipline of childhood interfering in the learning process. And while those four warriors of years past didn't use the shock tactics they had employed — ultimately to nought — with the Liberty Legion to make them more deadly when facing the Übermenschen during World War Two, the retired War Hawks had been quite stern yet thorough teachers to their twenty-five young charges who would eventually form both the "A" and "B" squads of the future 33rd Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit.

"It was the best time of our lives," Lorrie whispered wistfully before she pulled out the 1991-92 yearbook, which displayed pictures of the time they and their peers were undergoing the Ontario Academic Credit — or "Grade 13" as it was still often called back then — year before heading off to university and entering adulthood in earnest.

Flipping the pages, the artillery officer quickly traced down her near-lookalike that — in gynoid form — had nearly killed one of her oldest friends and her twin sister…and all for being "freaks," whatever that meant. Quickly finding the picture amongst the Grade 11 students at that time, she shook her head. "Just like me," she whispered as Maria set aside the older yearbook to look. "Annabelle Sebastian."

"Don't really remember her," the intelligence officer said with a shake of the head.

Her cell phone then chimed the tune of the Regimental March of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Slipping it out of her pocket — even if it seemed to be your normal iPhone 3G, it had been expertly modified by Stephen Caldwell to have abilities the designers at Apple couldn't _begin_ to imagine — she clicked the answer button. "Kennison."

"Good morning, Commander," the welcome voice of Benton Fraser called back from "G" Division headquarters in Yellowknife. "We've got information concerning Miss Sebastian."

"Talk."

"Her identity in all aspects has been confirmed and would be seen as legitimate," the staff sergeant replied. "Birth certificate, health card, driver's licence, social insurance number, income tax returns…it's as legitimate as any other person. No criminal record. According to the 2009 income tax report we just received from Revenue Canada, Miss Sebastian is currently registered as being self-employed as a truck driver."

That made Maria blink. "You were able to get records from Revenue Canada?!" she demanded. Which was understandable; government departments at both the federal and provincial/territorial levels rarely if EVER shared personal data between them.

"At the recommendation of the commanding officer of 'G' Division, Judge Henley of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories passed a unilateral finding on this case at the start of business today. Her Honour specifically referenced several clauses of the Artificial Persons Act of 1922 when she ruled that all federal and provincial government departments were to immediately release personal information concerning Miss Sebastian to us, Commander," Benton replied. "Specifically, Her Honour referenced Article Five, Paragraph Two. That paragraph emphatically states that all government departments who have any information concerning an 'artificial person' such as Miss Sebastian are to surrender same to any investigative agency — such as the Department of National Defence — whenever an incident occurs where a citizen of the Dominion was harmed by said artificial person. As was the case with Master Hordye and Professor Priella yesterday."

Maria nodded. She knew of that particular law thanks to Stephen, but hadn't known the specific clauses in that legislation which would make various government departments move quickly to recall and transfer whatever information was necessary to investigate matters of this nature. "What else have your people been doing?" she asked; it had been her — with the authority granted her by the commanding officer of Canadian Forces Joint Headquarters as they were the first military unit contacted in this situation — who had given "G" Division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police the right to help investigate this matter due to the two victims being current residents of the Northwest Territories.

"We're now moving to send out enquiries to all her customers to learn more, but I suspect that she has done nothing which could have aroused suspicions with them, much less local authorities," Benton replied. "We're still waiting on replies from the Canadian Truckers Association and the Ontario Trucking Association concerning her memberships in those organizations, what customers she had obtained through them and her driving record."

"When you get something, brief me in."

"Understood, Commander."

The link with Yellowknife was soon cut, then Maria explained what she had been told to Lorrie. The artillery officer took that in with a curt nod. "What now?"

"We go back to Welland and get the Niagara Regional Police involved in this," Maria stated. "Annabelle's home address was in town, so…"

Lorrie nodded…

**_To Be Continued…_ **

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES**

1) Quick military equipment note: A **bore evacuator** is the part of a tank's main gun which helps prevent poisonous propellant gases from venting back into the vehicle's fighting compartment when the gun breech is opened to load another round. This is especially important in quick-firing situations; if said gases were not cleared of the barrel when the breech is opened, hot gases and other combustion residue from the round just fired would leak into the tank's interior, depleting oxygen levels and filling it with a foul odour that can easily induce nausea and distract the crewmen from their tasks. On the **Staff of Gihan**, the part of the weapon's staff looking like a bore evacuator houses the unit's primary combat computer.

2) Translations: **Seifuku** — The "sailor suit" uniform worn by most Japanese female middle school and high school students; **Giri** — An intrinsic Japanese value roughly corresponding to "duty," "obligation" or even "burden of obligation"; **Huldufólk** — Literally "hidden folk," this term normally represents the supernatural spirits natives of Iceland strongly believe in…and in the context of the universe of this story, officially serves as a catch-all term for all magical beings native to that island; **Úlfhéðnar** — Literally "men clad in wolf skins," these were Norse berserk warriors who appeared in many of the mythological sagas of the Viking era…and in the context of this story, are the Icelandic version of aurors serving the Ministry of Magic in the _Harry Potter_ novels; **Apron** — In the aviation context, this is the parking area at an airport for aircraft AWAY from terminal buildings or hangars (the area close to same is known as the "**Ramp**"); **Key Stage Two** — The English designation for the period of a child's education which would be the equivalent of Grades 3-6 in Canada; **Escadrille** — Flight (a sub-unit of an Air Force squadron); **Québécois** — Demonym for natives of the province of **Québec**; **Bérkut** — Golden eagle; **Estrie** — A **neologism** ("new speech") version of the term _est_ ("east"), this is the name for the region of Québec that used to be called the **Eastern Townships**, an area which had once been heavily populated by Anglo-Québécois that borders Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont and is due south of Québec City and due east of Montréal (the city of **Sherbrooke** is the Estrie's main administrative centre); **Octillion** — A term used to indicate a number with twenty-seven zeroes behind it, (i.e. one octillion is written numerically as **1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000**); **Head Shed** — Slang for the site of a unit or formation headquarters; **Aéroport Municipal** — Municipal airport; **Édifice** — Building; **Capitaine d'Aviation** — Literally "captain of aviation," this is the official Canadian French translation of the old Royal Canadian Air Force rank title of **Flight Lieutenant** (**F/L**); **INCO** — International Nickel Company, the trade name of a mining company that was formed in 1902 in the Sudbury region of central Ontario and would be absorbed by the Brazilian firm **Vale** in 2006; **Stelco** — Steel Company of Canada, a steel manufacturer that was formed in the city of Hamilton in 1910 and filed for bankruptcy in 2007, later to be bought out by U.S. Steel.

3) As noted in the last part, characters such as **Suzanne Hanlon**, **Molly Hecht**, **Annie Whitman** and **Cheryl Thomas** all appeared in _Sweet Valley High_. The back stories of Suzanne, Molly and Annie — as well as Lynne Henry — as described in the narrative here are as they appeared in the books. Cheryl, who first appeared in novel #93, _Stepsisters_, was the daughter of a photographer that Annie's mother (a fashion model) fell in love with and would marry in the following novel, _Are We In Love?_ Also, in that novel, Cheryl briefly dated the Wakefield twins' college-age brother, **Steven Wakefield**; Steven was Tricia Martin's boyfriend until her death in book #15, _Promises_.

I should also state that the treatment Molly received in novel #41, _Outcast_, has always upset me, especially when it comes to her parents' behaviour; it later reminded me far too much of how Moroboshi Ataru's parents often treated him in _Urusei Yatsura_. Thus, despite her only appearing in _On The Edge_ and _Outcast_, Molly is my second-favourite _SVH_ character after Lynne Henry.

As for the other _SVH_ characters mentioned here…

**Dana Larson** and **Emily Mayer** were, in the novel series, two of the performers in the **Droids**, the local teen rock band in Sweet Valley. Dana was lead singer and Emily was the drummer. The former got the chance to shine in two novels, _Starting Over_ (novel #33) and _In Love With A Prince_ (novel #91). Family problems with the latter were the central theme of novel #25, _Nowhere To Run_.

While not having ever been part of the Droids, **Andrea Slade** was the daughter of a famous musician, Jamie Peters, who kept her relationship with him a secret to help her have a normal life as it was depicted in novel #72, _Rock Star's Girl_.

**Johanna Porter** and her younger sister **Julie Porter** came from a musical family. Julia is an expert pianist, though Johanna never inherited any such skills from their parents. Atop that, she didn't do well in school and dropped out sometimes before the series got started. She would eventually come back to school in novel #36, _Last Chance_, and discover that she had a hand in computing thanks to her would-be boyfriend, **Peter DeHaven**…though, in a VERY unique twist when it came to the _Sweet Valley High_ series, Johanna would eventually NOT pursue a relationship with Peter. Julie herself got the chance to shine in novel #47, _Troublemaker_.

**Lila Fowler**, **Cara Walker**, **Jean West**, **Sandra Bacon** and **Maria Santelli** were some of Jessica Wakefield's closest friends. Lila is the only daughter of the second-richest family of Sweet Valley; in comparison to **Bruce Patman** — who was the effective "arrogant rich brat" of the series, though he had his redeeming moments; he dated Regina Morrow from novel #18, _Head Over Heels_, until he dumped her for Amy Sutton in _On The Edge_ — Lila's family wealth was always described as "new" money. Lila would be one of the main secondary characters of the series. Cara would become Steven Wakefield's boyfriend after Tricia Martin passed away; she would finally land him in novel #24 _Memories_; their relationship would become strained in the latter part of the series and they would eventually break up. Maria fell under the spotlight in novel #34 _Forbidden Love_. Sandra and Jean would jointly get a chance to star in novel #30, _Jealous Lies_. Sandra's love-life would also be put under the spotlight in novel #42, _Caught In The Middle_, while Jean would find herself competing for the love of a boy in novel #78, _The Dating Game_.

**Enid Rollins** was Elizabeth Wakefield's best friend throughout _SVH_. **Robin Wilson** was an overweight girl who wanted to join the Phi Beta Alpha sorority, but was "blackballed" by Jessica in novel #4, _Power Play_. This prompted her to go on a crash weight-loss program that won her school support, thus allowing her to eventually join the cheerleading squad and become co-captain; she also launched a smear campaign against the members of PBA in vengeance of Jessica's blackballing her. **DeeDee Gordon** was the daughter of a divorced couple who won the love of surfer **Bill Chase** in novel #8, _Heart Breaker_. **Patty Gilbert** was one of the token African-American characters of the series and DeeDee's best friend; she would get to shine in novel #61, _Boy Trouble_.

4) Quick note from _The Senior Year_: The "**Time of the Month**" nickname for the drive an Avalonian experiences on finding one's _marei'cha_ (literally "the one with whom you raise a child," though this term is normally translated as "bond-mate") was invented by my friend **Robert Geiger** for his _TSY_ story "Reunions, Remembrances and Returnings."

5) **Tim Hortons** is Canada's largest fast food restaurant chain, possessing over three thousand separate franchises nation-wide. In effect the Canadian equivalent of Starbucks in the United States, Tim Hortons was founded by its namesake, National Hockey League defence player **Miles Gilbert "Tim" Horton** (1930-74), in 1964.

6) **Grímsvötn** is a volcano in southeast Iceland, located in the northwestern side of the Vatnajökull ice cap about two hundred kilometres north of east from Reykjavík. Of all of Iceland's many volcanoes, Grímsvötn has the highest eruption frequency. Due to it being located under a large ice cap, most eruptions are sub-glacial in nature…though when such a mountain erupts — as Grímsvötn did on 21-25 March 2012 — with enough force, the resultant water vapour clouds could reach many kilometres into the sky, threatening air traffic; a total of 900 flights had to be cancelled during the period of Grímsvötn's 2012 eruption from Greenland to Norway and to Germany and Great Britain. In the universe of this story, the **Grímsvötn Dragon Reserve** would be located underground close to the main magma chamber.

7) Canadian Forces unit notes:

**1 Canadian Forces Flying Training School** (short-form **1 CFFTS**) is the place where **Air Combat Systems Officers** (**ACSO**, pronounced "Ak-soh") and **Airborne Electronic Sensor Operators** (**AES OP**, pronounced "Ace-sop") are trained. Personnel in the former trade are officers in charge of all tactical operations on aircraft when said aircraft is flying, including sensors, communications gear and weapons…and, thanks to recent developments, unmanned aerial vehicles. Personnel in the latter trade are the systems operators for all sensory gear aboard aircraft such as the **Lockheed CP-140 Aurora** long-range maritime patrol aircraft and the **Sikorski CH-124A Sea King** anti-submarine helicopter. 1 CFFTS was formed during World War Two as "1 Service Flying Training School" at Borden, then disbanded at war's end. It was reformed as "1 Flying Training School" after the war, serving until disbandment in 1957. The school was reformed again in 1965 and gained its present name in 1970 after amalgamation with the Flight Instructor School; later that year, 1 CFFTS shifted to **Cold Lake** in northeast Alberta and became the advanced pilot training school until 1977 when it was accorded squadron status and renamed **419 (Moose) Tactical Fighter Training Squadron** (**419 TFTS**). The name was revised in 2009 when the **Canadian Forces Air Navigation School** (**CFANS**) — first formed as "1 Air Navigation School" and "2 Air Navigation School" in 1942, then amalgamated as the "Central Navigation School" later that year; the unit would finally gain its final designation in 1968 during Unification — was renamed.

**3e Escadre** (literally "3 Wing") is the Air Force formation based at **Base des Forces Canadiennes Bagotville** (**BFC Bagotville**, literally "Canadian Forces Base Bagotville") in the Saguenay River valley of east-central Québec. The wing was formed originally in the 1950s as a subordinate formation of the original **1 Canadian Air Division**, which served as the Air Force's main contribution to the defence of Western Europe. The wing was disbanded in the late 1960s, replaced by **1 Canadian Air Group** (**1 CAG**) at **Baden-Söllingen** near the city of Baden-Baden in southwest Germany. The name was revived when Air Command transformed itself in the 1990s to streamline operations. Today, 3e Escadre is responsible primarily to the defence of Canadian airspace from foreign intrusion through the Alouettes in 425e Escadron.

The World War Two incarnation of **126e Escadron Tactique de Chasse d'Espace** (**126e ETCE**) — literally "126 Space Tactical Fighter Squadron" — was formed as a fighter unit flying from Dartmouth in Nova Scotia (where **Canadian Forces Base Shearwater** stands today) in 1942, flying Canadian-built Hawker Hurricanes. The squadron was disbanded in 1945 after the end of hostilities in Europe. The squadron was not accorded any battle honours. The squadron's nickname, the "Flying Lancers," was noted on at the Canadian Wings website that pays tribute to the Air Force.

**414 Electronic Warfare Support Squadron** (**414 EWSS**) — known as the "Black Knights" — was formed in 1941 as an army co-operation squadron, though it pretty much served as a fighter squadron throughout the rest of World War Two; it was one of the few RCAF squadrons to participate in the Battle of Dieppe in 1942. Disbanded in 1945, the squadron was reformed from 1948-50 as a photographic reconnaissance unit and reformed again in 1957 as a fighter squadron for service in Germany. Returning to Canada in 1957, the squadron was converted to an electronic warfare unit in 1968, serving as such until 1992, when it was converted to a combat support squadron, flying in support of fighter operations until being disbanded again in 2002. Today, the Black Knights fly in support of **Discovery Air Defence Services** (formerly Top Aces), which is a civilian contractor that supports the Air Force in providing joint terminal attack controller training to Canadian special operations and ground forces, "Red Air" simulated aerial combat and electronic attack training to CF-188 aircrew and Naval personnel, as well as live-fire target practice to the Canadian military. All aircraft flown by Discovery ADS are always piloted by those who were former Canadian Air Force fighter jockeys experienced with the CF-188 Hornet.

The description of the World War Two incarnation of **162e Escadron de Reconnaissance d'Espace** (**162e ERE**) — literally "162 Space Reconnaissance Squadron" — and its most famous pilot is exactly as describe above. The modern Ospreys' new aircraft, the **CSQ-185 Starhawk** — to be built in the future by Magellan Aerospace of Mississauga west of Toronto by its **Fleet Industries** subsidiary based in Fort Erie near Welland; the American RQ-5S version would be built by Northrop Grumman — is, in essence, a space-capable version of its near-namesake, the **Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk** unmanned surveillance aircraft. As an aside, the history of Magellan and Fleet in the universe of this story is much different than what happened in real life; the reason why is indicated in Part 51 of _Phoenix From the Ashes_.

**7e Escadre** ("7 Wing") was the intended Air Force wing meant for **Canadian Forces Base Ottawa**, which was the National Capital Region's local base; the base was formed in the early 1970s from the amalgamation of **Canadian Forces Base Rockcliffe** (in the northeast part of downtown Ottawa) and **Canadian Forces Base Uplands** (south of downtown; the Uplands airport is now known as **Ottawa MacDonald-Cartier International Airport**). However, thanks to cost-cutting in the mid-1990s, CFB Ottawa was effectively disbanded, thus removing the requirement for an Air Force wing there; the base was replaced by **Canadian Forces Support Unit Ottawa** (**CFSU Ottawa**) as the local support structure for National Defence Headquarters and all units directly controlled or affiliated with it. In the context of this story, 7 Wing will be the Air Force wing activated as the supervisory formation of all reserve squadrons being formed by Avalonian-Canadians in the National Capital Region, both in Ontario and Québec.

**H.M.C.S. **_**York**_ is, as stated above, the Navy's reserve division based in the city of Toronto. The **Naval Reserve Divisions** (**NRDs**) are tasked to help augment the full-time Navy with personnel aboard ship and in shore units, not to mention man the Kingston-class coastal patrol vessels that were commissioned in the late 1990s to serve as auxiliary minesweepers. _York_ herself was first formed in 1923 as a "half-company" (with about fifty all ranks) that formed part of what was then called the **Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve** (**RCNVR**), also known as the "Wavy Navy" from the 3/8-inch wavy sleeve "rings" that RCNVR officers wore to differentiate them from full-time RCN officers. The Toronto Half-Company was commissioned as _York_ in 1942 and has served to this day. Because _York_ shares the same name as ten ships of the Royal Navy which have served the Crown from 1654 to 2012, the Canadian unit inherited the battle honours the British ships earned over the years on her commissioning in 1942.

As an aside, the **Regular Support Staff** (**RSS**) to any reserve unit in Canada are a small cadre of full-time personnel who are tasked to help the part-time personnel in matters of training and logistical support.

8) United States military unit notes:

The **Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency** (**DARPA**) is the agency in the United States Department of Defence responsible for the development of new technologies for use by the military. First formed in 1958 in effective response to the launch of the **Spútnik 1** satellite by the Soviet Union, DARPA is meant to ensure that no other nation could surprise the Americans in technological development; the agency is dedicated to _create_ surprises for America's enemies.

**Naval Air Station Patuxent River** (**NAS Patuxent River**) is a Navy airfield located on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland southeast of Washington D.C. It is the primary test and evaluation site for American Naval aviation.

9) An **Aviation Systems Technician** (**AVN TECH**) handles, services and maintains Canadian Air Force aircraft, ground equipment and associated support facilities. Members of this trade are responsible for the maintenance of aircraft systems including propulsion, airframe, basic electrical systems and their related components. The primary element of the ground crew of any Air Force squadron, AVN TECHs perform quality assurance checks, prepare and maintain aircraft forms and statistical data; perform aircraft handling tasks (parking, towing, marshaling, starting, refuelling, cleaning and deicing) as well as operate aircraft support equipment.

10) **James Mathewuse** was the artist for _Sweet Valley High_. Simply Google his name to see all he's done…and it's quite a bit! As an aside, there is very little information on the Net concerning James' successor as cover artist for _SVH_, **Bruce Emmett**.

11) **Miree ot'ndai-Bohgar** is a character from my story _Lonely Souls_.

12) The **University of British Columbia** (**UBC**) is the oldest post-secondary institution located in its namesake province. The main campus is located in the **University Endowment Lands**, an unincorporated area of the Greater Vancouver Regional District ten kilometres west of downtown Vancouver on the shores of the Strait of Georgia. UBC was first founded in 1908 as the McGill University College and acquired its present name in 1915. A public research university, UBC has a current enrolment of 57,000 students, both at its main campus and a satellite facility in Kelowna.

13) **Ursula Andrea Patton** (**Hiilanga** ["Thunderbird"]), **James William Graham** (**Nickelodeon**), **Thomas Scott Fenris** (**Energizer**) and **James Daniel "Jimmy" Woodson** (**Crackerjack**) are all characters I created in the 1980s as part of the Heroes Alliance of Canada. I will admit that at the time I first designed Ursula's character, I had no idea of the various Marvel heroes/villains who had taken the battle name "Thunderbird," especially those related to the X-Men. When I do mention Ursula's battle name in the future, I will use the Haida translation of "thunderbird."

14) **Grigori Szczepan Wyszynski** is this universe's version of the character of **Doctor Destructo** that appeared in my _The Doctor Is In_ storyline at the Anime Add-venture; in this series, I use another Polish version of the name "Stephen" for Professor Wyszynski's middle name. I do not claim any credit for the Doctor's original creation, though. That honour goes to a former schoolmate of mine, **Graeme Burk**, who was a comic book fan at the time we attended Robert Land Academy in the early 1980s and these days runs a _Doctor Who_ fan podcast site called **Reality Bomb**; just Goggle the name and you'll find the website with all the reports and interviews.

15) **Grade 13** was a pre-university prep year that Ontario included as part of its academic curriculum for high school students from 1921 to 1988. The **Ontario Academic Credit** (**OAC**) concept which replaced Grade 13 was introduced with students who entered high school in the 1984-85 school year, but would be eventually discontinued in 2003, thus making Ontario students equal to their peers elsewhere in Canada (who only had to endure four years of high school [grades 9-12]). Ironically, even with the elimination of Grade 13/OAC, almost a third of Ontarian students go on to complete a fifth year of education AFTER Grade 12 and obtaining their high school diploma to acquire extra credits before moving on; this is known as the "**Victory Lap**."

16) A quick note about how the **Royal Canadian Mounted Police** (**RCMP**) does business in Canada: Atop the Force being the national and federal policing agency for the Dominion, it also provides provincial/territorial policing services to eight of the ten provinces (all save Ontario and Québec) and all three territories, plus local policing services to more than 190 municipalities, 184 aboriginal communities and three international airports. **"G" Division** of the Force, in effect, serves as the territorial police force for the Northwest Territories.


	3. Auditioning For the Hollywells

Canadian Forces Base Kingston, an hour before lunch…

"Yukiko, you're reacting too badly to this…"

"I have a _**right**_ to react this way, Stephen!" the diminutive Japanese-Canadian woman with the bob-cut raven-black hair and the dark brown eyes behind reading glasses snapped as she glared at the technical officer of the 33rd Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit. "I may be just a 'Saturday Soldier' in comparison to full-timers like you, but I know my job! And THIS can't be ignored no matter what people in Iceland and elsewhere say!" She stabbed a finger towards the security monitoring unit set up in her host's laboratory.

Stephen Caldwell tried not to grin as he gazed in appreciation at Aihoshi Yukiko, the security officer of 33 CSWU. Unlike the marine systems engineer, the military police lieutenant was a part-time soldier, current the second-in-command of 33 Military Police Platoon based in Ottawa, an element of 2 Military Police Unit, the light battalion responsible for security and policing functions concerning Land Forces Central Area and all units operationally and/or administratively assigned to it. Yukiko was a first-degree black belt in the Tensei-ryū who currently worked as an assistant teacher at the Ottawa Academy of Martial Arts in civilian life while parading with 33 MP Platoon on weekday evenings and the odd weekend. She had a gift for languages — Yukiko was functionally trilingual (English, French and Japanese) — thus was able to do two tours in Afghanistan alongside soldiers of both the Royal Canadian Regiment and le Royal 22e Régiment during Rotos 2 and 7 of Operation: Athena. It was during the latter deployment that she became the first member of the Heroes Alliance to receive a bravery decoration; after defusing an IED that threatened to destroy a local market, she was awarded the Medal of Military Valour…much to her embarrassment and shame as she had the same FISS-type powers as Lynda Warbis!

"Agreed, you do," he finally stated to calm her down; Yukiko was a stickler for the rules, especially the special ones made for the members of 33 CSWU, even the eleven other reserve officers scattered across Ontario. "But given the evidence of this young lady's actions — not to mention that her weapon is meson-powered, thus next to impossible to track by any means — I think we can direct our resources elsewhere. Especially since we all now have to deal with the implications of _that_ first!" He pointed to the diagnostic table with the unmoving body of a certain gynoid that Deanna Hordye disabled yesterday.

She looked before she sighed. "I heard of an incident back in the old country."

That meant Japan, he knew. "What happened?"

"Negi Springfield and his friends went down to Kyōto to visit Konoe Konoka's father a week ago," she answered, crossing her arms. "While they were there, Wilhelm von Herrman attacked some of the girls. You know who he is, I believe."

"The demon who petrified all the natives of Negi's home village in Wales years ago."

"Well, it turns out that the Friend of Dragons _unfroze_ them shortly after that incident with the dragons at that reserve near Meridiana," she stated. "And the dear 'count' didn't care for that one bit; after all, who gives mere 'mortals' the right to defy what a _**demon**_ unleashes?" As he chuckled, a smirk crossed her face. "Near as the people in Japan could figure out…" — by this, she meant members of the regional Magical Associations who were the governing authorities for magicals in that country regardless of specific ability — "…the attack on Negi's friends was intentional."

"It was reported from the start that she was Japanese even if her eye and hair colour say otherwise," he noted. "When she allowed the people of that village to live again, Herr Herrman knew he had to draw her from wherever the Friend of Dragons currently lives — the bioroid factory, most likely — to engage her in battle on a ground of his choosing. Thanks to what Lord Rjazán' and _Rittmeister_ von Taserich did all those centuries ago to the Old Ones, demons know they have no power beyond the limits of Earth's biosphere. The factory was out of his reach."

"And mesonium is deadly to a demon…as he found out the _hard_ way. Fatally."

Silence.

"Have you talked to Larry about this? Or Ursula?" Stephen asked.

"Not yet," Yukiko said with a shake of her head as she crossed her arms. Larry Brigham was the only true magical member of 33 CSWU; when Grigori Wyszynski infused his foetus with mesonium years ago, it awoke long-dormant magical genes which would have seen the young boy invited to the Dominion's local wand-magical school, the Institute of Science and Magic on the Sibley Peninsula near his hometown of Thunder Bay. However, an Ojibwe elder from the Fort William First Nation near northwestern Ontario's largest city intervened to see Larry move to Welland when the War Hawks were helping the other future members of 33 CSWU learn how to use their powers. These days, Larry — a sub-lieutenant in the Navy — worked for the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development at their Thunder Bay offices and guest-lectured at the ISM while also serving as a member of the ship's company of H.M.C.S. _Griffon_ as the unit's naval control of shipping officer. "But given that the Friend of Dragons upped and KILLED a high-level demon…"

More silence.

"Given the size of the focusing crystal in her weapon, it doesn't surprise me that woman would be able to pull off something like that," he noted. "From what I saw of it on the security monitor recordings after she came here to deliver that threat to Annabelle's creator, the proportions of the three types of meson is the exact reverse of the Major's Power Jewel: Ten percent diamond, thirty percent ruby and sixty percent ebony."

That made her eyes go wide; _**her**_ primary weapon — while having spent three billion years charging up with life energy, thus making it the most powerful artificial object on the planet when it had been claimed in 1889 — ironically had over half its mass composed of the normally _least_ powerful version of the Atom of True Life. "So where did she get that thing?"

"That's the question," he noted. "So what happened after Herr Herrman was killed?"

"This girl literally tore Miyazaki Nodoka a brand-new asshole," she said with a smirk. Before becoming an officer in the Canadian Forces Military Police, Yukiko had served as an infantry soldier in the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa while she was obtaining her kinesiology degree at the namesake university of the national capital; because of her "grunt" background, she could swear with the best of them. "While she was busy reducing Herr Herrman to his component quantum elements and sending meson-powered beams into his home dimension to make it clear to any friends that coming to avenge the 'count' was a fatally stupid thing to contemplate, Miss Librarian decided to use the Diarium Ejus to probe the mind of the Friend of Dragons. She didn't take too kindly to that."

Stephen winced. Right from the first time Luna Lovegood tried to interview the Friend of Dragons, it was publicly known in the magical societies of Earth that the latter viewed her duty to her friends — which compelled her silence over her very _name_ — as being under the bounds of giri, the classical Japanese virtue of duty and obligation that once drove samurai to do anything for their lords, even at the sacrifice of their own lives. To have a _Japanese_ girl like Miyazaki Nodoka try to VIOLATE the Friend of Dragons' mind to learn her identity when the latter made such a declaration would be seen as a horrid insult, if not grounds for blood-feud. After destroying a high-level demon like Wilhelm von Herrman, Stephen didn't need his vast intelligence to guess what chances a relatively normal girl like Nodoka might have against such a person. "What happened then?"

"Negi tried to calm things down," Yukiko answered. "He did know of what the Friend of Dragons had done in Wales, so he was caught between his love for Nodoka and his sense of honour. Some of the other girls didn't care too kindly to see the poor girl get ripped apart verbally like that, so they tried to jump her…and got their asses handed to them before the Friend of Dragons disappeared to wherever she's…"

A _ding!_ echoed through the room. "Speak of the devil," he muttered as he walked over to his work desk to tap a control on his telephone. "Good morning, Philip."

"A good morning to you, Stephen. Sorry to bother you, but we got visitors from Japan AND England who want to speak to you," Inspector Philip Parsons, who was one of the junior officers of the RCMP's all-magical "W" Division assigned to the headquarters detachment in Ottawa, called back over the loudspeakers attached to that particular telephone. "Luna Lovegood from the _Quibbler_ and Hakase Satomi from Mahora. When our sensors picked up the energy echo of the Friend of Dragons visiting your laboratory early this morning, the word got out thanks to one of the MMPs overhearing two of the night shift constables chatting about it, then he released a statement about this on MagicNet."

Stephen tensed. "Dear God, he didn't…!"

"Relax, Commander, he didn't," a new voice cut in over the speakers.

"Hello, Satomi," he said with a smirk; unlike other scientists who knew of the "brat loon from Mahora," the technical officer of 33 CSWU was fully aware of the university senior's capabilities. "How on Earth did _you_ draw the short straw in this wild-goose chase?"

A chuckle responded. "I automatically monitor all communications that come into the Kantō Magical Association headquarters room when it comes to things that interest me. Anything I don't feel the others need to know about, I blank it from the system," Hakase Satomi responded from the inspector's private office, located in the hidden sub-basement levels of the Centre Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, where the offices of the Ministry of Magical Affairs and its departments were based. "I've got your name in that database; sadly, the distinguished gentleman who blabbed things mentioned it. Inspector Parsons assures me that he has no idea of your affiliation with Major Raeburn."

Yukiko breathed out. "Well, that makes my team's security officer quite happy right now," her host said as he gave her an amused look. "I hope you realize, Luna…"

"Please, Commander, I'm not _that_ foolish," Luna Lovegood cut in with an amused titter, her voice as dreamy and airy as ever. "And given how much my family's readership tends to take things we publish in the _Quibbler_ with a grain of salt…"

"'Grain of salt?!' Try the whole damned _**salt shaker**_!"

A tear-filled moan responded. "Satomi! That's cruel!"

The sound of someone giving someone a Bronx cheer echoed over the speaker, which made Stephen groan as he tapped a control on his desk. "Ladies! A little decorum, please?" he pleaded. "It's down, Philip. You can send them over."

"On their way, Stephen," Philip said with a stifled laugh…

* * *

Canadian Space Agency Station Aurora, lunchtime…

"Lynda!"

Lynda Warbis perked on hearing that familiar voice, then turned…before her jaw hit the deck on gazing at all the changes that had just befallen Deanna Hordye. "Deanna?!" she exclaimed before staring in shock at Sasha Spencer. "Is this…?"

"What she should have looked like all along…had she been born a true woman in lieu of an intersex," the armoured officer answered as she gave her former next-door neighbour a knowing look. On noting the confused look cross the pilot's face, Sasha smirked. "Dee and Helen were born as true hermaphrodites…but had operations when they were babies to correct the issue and make them girls. It didn't go far enough…"

"Because medical technology and social attitudes at the time demanded corrective surgery to ensure I didn't suffer from any diseases because my genes couldn't make their damned minds up about what I was supposed to be," Deanna finished as she gazed in amusement at Lynda. As the latter nodded, the martial artist then sighed. "That's now fixed."

"So we can finally get you and your sister to go on dates?" Lynda then teased.

"Too late."

"Eh?!"

"She's had her 'time of the month,'" Sasha helpfully provided before she sent Deanna an annoyed look. "With an Avalonian friend she never bothered to tell _**me**_ about!"

"How the hell was I supposed to tell you that, Sash?!"

"Simple! 'Sash, you won't believe this, but I just met up with a bunch of Avalonians who were modelled on the _Sweet Valley High_ characters. One of them is even modelled after the girl I liked the best in the whole series.' How simple is that?"

Lynda gaped. "You're bloody kidding me!"

"Not really, Lynda."

Everyone turned as Lynne Henry came up. Introductions were then made, then Lynda perked on noting Aurélie Marcelle walk up towards them from the direction of the station's main hangar, where the pilot from the Alouettes had landed her CSF-196 Starfire moments before. Once the air combat systems officer from Val d'Or was introduced — to Deanna's amusement, Lynne greeted her in fluent Québécois French — they all headed down a hallway leading into the central hub of the station. "How come you haven't moved down to the planet yet?" Lynda then asked. "Didn't Immigration Canada clear you to land?"

"We are cleared to land, but we can't make up our minds as to where we want to live," Lynne answered. "Factoring in Dee and Helen now…"

"Why didn't you choose California when you came here?" the pilot asked.

"Another group of _Sweet Valley_ replicas — these ones modelled on the actresses who portrayed them in the television series in the 1990s — moved down to Santa Barbara. Atop that, Jessica was and is determined to get us to move to Queenston."

That made the two former residents of Welland perk. "Why?" Sasha asked.

"That was where Dean was born. Remember?" Deanna noted.

Lynda and Sasha nodded. "A fan?" the former asked with a wry smile.

"Almost all the way where I'd apply the word 'otaku' to her," Deanna groaned out.

"Oh, stop, Dee! Jess isn't _that_ bad!" Lynne protested.

"Really? She's already strong-armed all the cheerleaders into supporting it, including Robin," Deanna countered. "Once Robin decided, that made Enid support her. Given that Liz is Amy's lover and Enid's friend, she'll probably fall along…even if she's been preaching all along that everyone has the right to make up their own minds."

"Where would they live in Queenston anyway?" Sasha wondered.

"Oh, Mon Dieu…!"

Eyes locked on a wide-eyed Aurélie. "What is it?" Lynne asked.

A fan-like squeal escaped the air combat systems officer. "_**YOU KNOW MAJOR RAEBURN?!**_"

Deanna jerked…before a tired moan escaped her as she felt HUNDREDS of eyes fall on her; they had just stepped into a concourse now filled with many Avalonians, not to mention the odd Terran male in jumpsuits with the patch of the Canadian Space Agency on them. "Thank you very much, Lieutenant!" she snarled as she glared at a now-blushing Aurélie. "I really needed to have THAT revealed to everyone on the damned station!"

And sure enough, a crowd of chattering women were swarming them…

* * *

"I am SO sorry about that, Master Hordye…"

Deanna was _still_ giving Lynda's ACSO a death glare; she had just spent the last half-hour fending off a storm of questions about her relationship with Canada's greatest soldier. "Lieutenant, while I more than understand a lot of people's admiration for Dean because of what she did in the war — never mind her becoming Earth's first interplanetary ambassador, long before Moroboshi Ataru and his friends in Tomobiki got slammed with that duty last summer — and how it reflects on the Forces as a whole, she doesn't care at all to be worshipped like other 'heroes'…" — she made finger-quotes on saying that word — "…have been over the years. She did her duty. Nothing more, nothing less. Yes, she's the first _woman_ to win the Victoria Cross in the Commonwealth and the first person ever to get _**three**_ Victoria Crosses anywhere in the Commonwealth — never mind her being the only living non-American to have won the Medal of Honour after she saved President Roosevelt's life back in '42 — but she never saw herself as someone special. And don't get me started with that whole 'Protector of All Life' horsecrap people have heaped on her!" She snorted as she sat back in her chair, crossing her arms.

Aurélie winced. "Still…"

"Lieutenant, even if there were times that she took training under the major whenever she came back to Earth to relax after tutoring some other Jewel Warrior out there, Dee's mostly been trained by the senior master of the Tensei-ryū in Ontario, Master Lily Ch'oi," Sasha explained. "Yes, as Grandmaster of the Tensei, Major Raeburn is ultimately responsible for Dee's training, but she's been on Earth for at most TEN times in the last thirty years…and each time, she spent only a couple MONTHS at her place in British Columbia, never mind visiting the dōjō in Queenston or the one up in Prince Albert." Of course, for security reasons, the fact that the War Hawks spent nearly five years dealing with the future members of their successor unit back in the 1980s was not mentioned.

"Master Lily is pretty much my true teacher," Deanna added. "Every time someone tries to chat me up about being Dean's student, I see that as an insult to a woman who took me under her wing when I was a child and taught me all I know about martial…"

"Excuse me, Lynne."

Everyone turned as a pretty — _Is there no other type of Avalonian?_ Sasha mused as she tried not to grin too much — woman came up. "What is it, Serena?" Lynne asked.

"We need you to come join us on the stage," Serena van der Woodsen — she was based on one of the characters of the _Gossip Girl_ series of teen romance novels that came out over the previous decade — said. Like the Kentra's Cliff group of Avalonians based on the _Sweet Valley High_ female cast, Serena's group had elected NOT to settle down in their spiritual "home" territory in Manhattan's Upper East Side and moved to Canada instead. Unlike Lynne and her friends, Serena and her group had elected on a place to live: Haldimand County in south-central Ontario, the single-tier municipality hugging the lower Grand River and the shores of Lake Erie incorporating Deanna Hordye's birthplace of Dunnville. Their new places of residence were being erected on the south side of the Grand across from the urban part of Dunnville, next to the old Royal Canadian Air Force station which today served as the town's municipal airport. And the spiritual home of the Canadian Army's local reserve "armoured reconnaissance" unit, the Haldimand and Welland Cavalry Regiment. "People from the regiment will be here to listen to us audition so we can join the band."

"Right," Lynne said, standing. "Excuse me."

"Make sure you put in request time, Lynne," Deanna said.

Lynne laughed as she followed the other woman to the small performance stage located at one side of the concourse, with large picture windows showing a spectacular view of Earth at the would-be military musicians' backs. To symbolize their desire to join the Haldimand and Welland, Serena and her three dozen friends — including people who _weren't_ modelled on any Terran fictional character — were dressed in the two-piece martial arts gi-like uniforms Avalonians adopted as their "liberation dress"; such was modelled on traditional Noukiite commoner's dress. The uniforms were coloured red overall with gold trim, the badge of the Haldimand and Welland Cavalry Regiment embroidered on the tops over the left breast. No rank insignia was displayed on the arms as the would-be "Hollywells" — as members of that particular regiment were nicknamed — had not been formally sworn into service; that, Deanna had learned from Jessica Wakefield, would happen once Serena and her friends had moved into their new homes planetside.

Also on the stage were the members of the Droids: Lead singer Dana Larson, drummer Emily Mayer, electric guitarist Andrea Slade, pianist Julie Porter and synthesizer player Johanna Porter…now being joined by acoustic guitarist Lynne Henry. As the crowd in the concourse calmed down in anticipation of some good music, Lynne whispered something to Dana which made the stylish blonde with the blue eyes gaze in Deanna's direction before she smirked, nodding. By then, Serena had assumed her place behind an electric piano; since they weren't officially in the Hollywells' band, there had been no lectern set up for a conductor. As soon as she saw that her fellow musicians were ready, Serena called out, "_Canadian Railway Trilogy_, on three. One…two…three…"

Andrea and Lynne launched into the folksy guitar riff that began the famous song written by one of Canada's greatest composers as part of the Dominion's centennial celebrations in 1967. Soon enough, Dana — joined by a chorus of a half-dozen vocalists off to one side — began to sing the lyrics that made people think back to Canada's earlier days, when a wide, foreboding and still mostly unexplored continent stood in the way of the "National Dream" that demanded British Columbia be united by a ribbon of steel with the other provinces, a quest that took nearly two decades to finish before the last spike had been driven into the Canadian Pacific Railroad at Craigellachie in the autumn of 1885.

As the first part of the _Trilogy_ was sung out, many in the audience was quick to join in, even Deanna; the martial artist had discovered Gordon Lightfoot when she was a young child and radio stations played _The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald_ on the anniversary of the Great Lakes freighter's sinking in a Lake Superior gale in the late autumn of 1975. A glance towards Lynne revealed to Sasha and Lynda that their former classmate's would-be lover was quite pleased to hear Deanna's deep baritone even when it was nearly drowned out by hundreds of other voices. The pilot reached over to tap the armoured officer's leg, making Sasha look over. "She's got it really bad for her," Lynda then mouthed.

Sasha nodded. "Don't need Maria to sense that," she mouthed back.

Lynda smirked. As soon as the band was done with _Trilogy_, it then launched into Gordon Lightfoot's most popular song ever, the romping _Sundown_. Here, Lynne took the lead among the vocalists, with Dana and Andrea — and the vocalists planning to join the Hollywells — forming the echoing chorus that followed each stanza of the song. As the visitors from Earth watched, couples were quick to get onto an impromptu dance floor to sway with the bouncy folk melody…even if said song's theme harped on infidelity, a concept that was hard for many Avalonians to understand given their ancestors' more open acceptance of sex in comparison to Terrans. And while it hadn't caused trouble amongst the religiously conservative across Earth — the horror of what many Avalonians and their hybrid children had endured, thanks very much to what the Moroboshi siblings had spent a month doing after the Liberation to put the word out, was just too overwhelming for most Terrans to just ignore — Deanna knew it might be a source of contention in the future.

As stewards moved among the crowd to get food and drinks ordered from the audience, the impromptu band continued with their practice; it normally lasted from lunchtime to mid-afternoon. As the musicians continued to work with their instruments or their voices, Deanna was quick to note someone walk into the concourse from the direction of the main hangar, escorted by Elizabeth Wakefield. He was in CADPATs with a black beret on his head, army captain's stripes on his epaulette slip-on. The general shape of the badge — never mind the man's handsome, rugged looks — was enough to make the martial artist smirk as she rose from the table and head over to join Elizabeth and the newcomer.

"Captain Miles, what are you doing _**not**_ wearing your PROPER headgear?" she then teased.

He yelped on hearing that question before spinning around…and stopping to gape at the beautiful tomboy in the black martial arts gi with the black belt around her waist. After a moment of blinking, Izak Miles then gasped, "Deanna?!"

She winked, which made the second-in-command of the Hollywells' C Squadron — based at the Niagara Central Airport near Welland — jerk before he gazed on his guide. "How…?"

"That is Deanna's personal story to explain, Captain," Elizabeth stated.

"So what the hell brings you up here, Zak?" Deanna asked.

Izak sighed. He had been — as a good section of elementary school students living in Welland during the 1970s and 1980s could claim — a student of Deanna's late mother Brenda whenever they passed through her Grade 7-8 classes at four separate schools scattered across the Rose City. And while Deanna had never got close to almost all of her mother's students, many of them knew her quite personally, usually thanks to the times the martial artist had come to help her mother with getting classes set up before term started. Many of those ex-students had been there when Brenda Hordye had passed away from complications stemming from abdominal surgery and had kept in contact with Deanna over Facebook since that time. "Something that would probably make the Major a very happy woman, Deanna," he said; she was quick to sense the emphasis on the rank title he just mentioned. "Not that the folks in the Land of Oz have put out warning orders about this, but our newest troopers are intent on getting us back into our proper roles as soon as possible."

That made Deanna gape as a simple phrase echoed in her mind…

_**The Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry**_.

The home service of one Major (retired) Deannette Antonia "Dean" Raeburn.

* * *

"So you're getting these…what are those things called again?"

"Dynajets, Lynda," Izak provided. "The CSV-131 as it'll be formally designated. Given the numbers being imagined now for both the Air Cavalry and the Air Force, it might be the first aircraft we'll have in the service with a _seven-digit_ tail code." He shook his head before sipping his coffee, then he relaxed in his chair. "And it's one hell of a great machine from what friends of mine in Trenton and Borden have said about it."

The others around the table nodded. As some members of the band continued to play in the background — Izak Miles had been accompanied by the director of music and the drum major of his regiment's band on this trip to CSAS Aurora; both of them were now chatting with Serena van der Woodsen and some of her friends while the Droids enjoyed their lunch — the armoured officer from Welland had explained about the first step being taken by his unit and other such units from Gander to Comox to correct a four decade-long injustice. "So how many of these things will your unit have in the end?" Lynda asked.

"A squadron of thirty, split into five six-ship flying troops," Izak answered. "Four troops will be dedicated utility transport for a ground brigade, with the fifth dedicated to supporting the brigade field ambulance. We'll need three-man crews for the utility birds and four-man crews for the medevac birds. Either med techs or SAR techs."

The others nodded again. "I'm surprised people here didn't do what the British are doing now with their combat brigades," Sasha noted. "One tank regiment and one reconnaissance regiment to work with one armoured infantry battalion, one mechanized battalion and two light battalions. Pulling units out of the Supplementary Order of Battle should see all the slots filled up." She then held up a hand in reassurance. "Not that I would want to stop you guys from being allowed to officially fly again. You've been doing it on the sly since they disbanded the Corps back in '70, so why not make it official?"

"I'd definitely agree to that," Lynda added. "I remember what friends who were there told me about what you guys did in the Blizzard of '77. Even if you weren't 'officially' a flying unit, you did as much work in rescuing people as the Links did!"

"Too many of Paul Hellyer's cronies were still in Ottawa at the time, Lynda," Deanna noted, her voice flooded with sarcasm on her mentioning a certain former minister of national defence from the 1960s who had started the process of consolidating and unifying three separate military services into one single service, the Canadian Armed Forces.

Nods again from the others at the table, even Elizabeth Wakefield. For the most part, the negative aspects of Unification which forced the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force to merge into the Canadian Forces had long since been either accepted by the rank and file or modified over the years to better reflect Canada's long military history. The most visible example of this was the introduction of the Distinctive Environmental Uniforms in the late 1980s to replace the despised CF Greens that had been imposed on everyone — even sailors and air personnel — in the early 1970s. Still, there were things that — in the minds of experts across the country, both working in the Department of National Defence and elsewhere — still needed to be done.

The restoration of the Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry to official flying service as a separate personnel branch to assume all tactical aviation responsibilities for the Army was, in the eyes of many people — Deanna included — at the top of that list.

Which was ironic indeed given the Corps' initial _**support**_ for the unification process in the mid-1960s when it was concerned about eliminating duplicated services — training facilities and support bases and units — to ensure more "bang for the buck" given Canada's tradition of being stingy when it came to funding people in uniform.

But when it came to intangible things like service, regimental or corps identity…!

Deanna sighed as she gazed on Izak Miles. The regiment he was a part of now had been formed by Canadian-born veterans of the American Civil War in 1867 as two independent mounted infantry companies in reflection of what they had done to defend their homes during the Fenian Raids into what was then Canada West a year earlier. Unlike the infantry troops rushed from Toronto and Hamilton to confront John O'Neill's "brigade" of Irish-American freedom fighters — all of whom were beaten back at the Battle of Ridgeway on 2 June 1866 — the riders from Cayuga Township in Haldimand County and Humberstone Township in Welland County extracted a brutal price from the invaders, hounding them and harassing them back to the Niagara River, where they would eventually try to flee back to New York state…only to be captured by an American warship once they were across the international border. Because of that, the Cayuga and Humberstone Mounted Infantry Companies were merged together into the 1st Volunteer Mounted Infantry Battalion in 1872, serving as such until conversion to foot infantry the year before the Great War began.

World War One — and the introduction of the aeroplane for military purposes — changed the destiny of that regiment as much as it would several units across the young Dominion.

When called up to serve, the officers and men of the 55th Regiment (Haldimand and Welland Rifles) — as the Haldimand and Welland Cavalry Regiment was known back then — helped form the "9th Air Reconnaissance Battalion" of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, turning its four infantry companies into four "flying companies" of sixteen aircraft apiece for aerial observation duties in support of the 3rd Canadian Division when it was deployed to the Western Front by the end of 1915. Soon enough, the 9th Battalion — along with its fourteen sister battalions supporting the other elements of the Canadian Corps — would be drawn into the growing air war over the blood-soaked fields of France and Flanders, forced to defend themselves against enemy fighters while they also carried out their mission of scouting ahead of the ground troops in preparation of attacks that could break the stalemate of the trenches and bring the Great War to a final end.

Of the 1,639 people the 55th Regiment recruited for service in the 9th Battalion on the Western Front, 287 would never come home, another 543 were wounded in action and seventeen declared missing in action, their final fate not known even to this day.

Because of the bloody yet sterling service given by the Canadian Corps' in-house air reconnaissance forces in the war, it was decided after the guns fell silent that — despite the trend started in Britain with the formation of the Royal Air Force in 1918, which emphasized the need for a separate yet equal aviation warfare service free of any influence from the Royal Navy or the British Army — a special tactical aviation service under full Army control needed to be created and maintained to act as the ground forces' airborne eyes and ears. Thus, on the first of May in 1920, the Canadian Air Cavalry Corps was created to take administrative charge of fifteen flying regiments using surplus World War One two-seat fighter scouts scattered from Nova Scotia to British Columbia.

One of those regiments was a transformed 55th Regiment…which would be renamed the "9th Canadian Cavalry (Haldimand and Welland) (Air)."

For fifty years, the Hollywells flew in the service of their country. Called up again to go overseas in World War Two, the regiment formed an active service unit that saw action in the defence of Britain against the Luftwaffe until it — along with the rest of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division — helped launch the invasion of Normandy on D-Day before proceeding to help shield the long left flank of the Allies' advance on Germany for the rest of the war. During that conflict, the regiment recruited a total of 1,279 persons to serve with the overseas unit. Of them, 68 were killed in action, 157 were wounded in action and six declared missing in action. Once that war was over, many wartime Hollywells continued to parade with the peacetime regiment on a part-time basis, forming a core of experienced pilots and ground personnel that stood by for twenty-five years to respond to the call of arms during the Cold War, gladly adopting to the introduction of jet technology and the helicopter to provide tactical air services when ordered.

Then came the "Ides of May."

The combination of deep defence spending cuts in Ottawa in partial response to the introduction of state-financed medical insurance, the growing distaste for the military life thanks to the horrors of Vietnam being splashed nightly across television screens and the morale-wrecking changes Unification brought onto the military forced the Hollywells — along with the other regiments of the Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry — to be _**grounded**_ when the corps was disbanded on the fiftieth anniversary of the its foundation in 1920. Of the twenty-seven regiments then in service in both the Regular Force and the Militia, fifteen were placed on the Supplementary Order of Battle — in effect, disbanded in all but name — and the remainder were rerolled either into the Armoured Corps (as the Hollywells were) or the Infantry Corps. Hundreds of pilot sergeants and pilot warrant officers — the Air Cavalry had never followed the standard air force practice of limiting pilot roles to commissioned officers — found themselves swept into the new Air Operations Branch of the Canadian Forces, commissioned as captains and majors along the way to eventually fly in _squadrons_ of up to fifteen aircraft when they once flew in _**regiments**_ of up to EIGHTY aircraft; members of the Air Cavalry were great believers in the concept of "_**There is no such thing as 'kill' but '**_**overkill**_**.'**_"

And a unique chapter of Canadian military history was consigned to the history books.

But the "Golden Warriors of the Sky" — as members of the Corps of Air Cavalry were often nicknamed thanks to their distinctive buff gold headgear — would not go quietly into that gentle night as it was hoped by many of the civilian planners in Ottawa.

With the help of regimental associations and the silent financial backing of the old service's most famous officer, unofficial "flying troops" of up to four surplus "Hueys," the American Army's UH-1 Iroquois tactical utility helicopter, each — all of which were registered on the civilian market to ensure no interference from Ottawa — were formed to maintain the necessary skills in supporting a fighting squadron of aircraft in the field. Troopers in the former Air Cavalry regiments — regardless if they were officially registered as armoured crewmen or infantrymen — would travel at their own expense to the nearest base to learn the necessary technical skills from sympathetic Air Command personnel; the disbandment of the Air Cavalry had been seen as monumentally stupid in the eyes of former members of the Royal Canadian Air Force as much as it had been for former members of the Canadian Army. "Memorial troops" were formed by veterans of those regiments consigned to the Supplementary Order of Battle, flying the Air Cavalry's signature tactical attack fighter from World War Two, the Sopwith Canada So-48 Camel II, to keep the memories of the Corps alive for younger generations. And military pilots, aircrew and ground crew who retired from full-time service were enticed to join the former Air Cavalry regiments to lend their expertise in maintaining the thirty-two unofficial "flying troops" based from Comox to Gander, all on standby when required; before he became a part of the Hollywells in 2004, Izak Miles had flown the Bell CH-146 Griffon for 427 Tactical Helicopter Squadron in Petawawa. The wisdom of those peculiar arrangements would be proven during the Blizzard of 1977 when the flying troops attached to the Hollywells' A and C Squadrons in Dunnville and Welland would take to the air in their Hueys to support the Lincoln and Welland Regiment in aid to the civilian power duties, airlifting school children from stranded buses and shipping in needed food and other emergency supplies to civilians effectively trapped in homes buried in snow.

While Parliament had formally recognized the Links' actions in that time, the Hollywells — much to the outrage of their friends in the infantry — never got even a public acknowledgement.

And then the Avalonians came…

"Deanna?"

The martial artist perked as she was shaken out of her contemplation by a hand on her shoulder. "Hey," she said as she gazed up on Lynne Henry. "How did they like the band?"

"They're all in, save for the paperwork," the musician mused as she sat down. "Here to see the Dynajets the girls from Bombardier are making, Captain?" she then asked Izak.

"It surprises me that Bell and Boeing haven't gone after you guys for stealing the basic design idea of the V-22 to make the Dynajet," he noted.

"Bell and Boeing were promised exclusive American production rights when the Air Force and the Marine Corps decide it's time to replace their Ospreys with a space-capable aircraft," Elizabeth noted as she sipped her tea. The basic idea behind the CSV-131 Dynajet had actually been proposed for service in the "Army of Lum" — as members of the Niphentaxian defence forces nicknamed their service — a couple years ago, but was taken to Earth as part of the crippling "reparations" the Avalonians extracted from their old masters; all it required once it was shown to people in Canada and elsewhere was for it to be adopted for local conditions and the service requirements of potential customers. "Bombardier…" — by this, the elder Wakefield meant the group of Avalonian-Canadians and Terran-Canadians working for the company's offices on Station Aurora — "…is helping them prepare modifications to the Quad TiltRotor design to adopt it for use in space."

The tactical helicopter pilot-turned-"armoured" officer nodded. As the bugs were finally ironed out concerning the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor tactical transport and it was brought into service with the American military at the turn of the millennium, a four-engine version — currently called the "Quad TiltRotor" — was proposed as a potential replacement aircraft for such large machines like the Sikorsky S-65/S-80 extended family of heavy lift helicopters, known as the CH-53E Super Stallion in the United States Marine Corps, the MH-53E Sea Dragon in the United States Navy and the MH-53H/J/M Pave Low in the United States Air Force. Said aircraft would be able to carry the same amount of cargo or personnel as a C-130 Hercules at 250 knots and land practically anywhere. While design work was still continuing — as far as Izak knew — the sudden introduction of Avalonian technology into military service had rendered so much obsolete in the blink of an eye. Still, it wasn't all that bad. Even if helicopters and tiltrotors couldn't operate in space, the concepts behind machines such as the Osprey were still sound as the Dynajet — in effect, it was an Osprey with tilting impulse jets on the ends of its thick wings in lieu of turboshaft engines with helicopter-sized rotors — was proving. And if a four-engined version of the Dynajet — the "Quad Dynajet" as the concept was nicknamed by Avalonian technicians working for Bombardier; naturally, a much better name would be selected for the type when it came into service — was brought into service, it would give the Canadian Forces an all weather heavy tactical lift capability that could reach places helicopters couldn't due to lack of overall range.

"Excuse me."

Everyone turned as another man in CADPATs, this one with lieutenant's stripes on his slip-ons, came up to join them. "What's the problem, Lieutenant?" Deanna asked.

"Sorry to bother you all, but it's Ms. Henry that I wanted to talk to," the lieutenant — his name tag read **GLEASON** — said before gazing on Lynne. "What would it take to convince you and your friends in the — Droids, it was called? — to join the regiment?"

Lynne's jaw dropped…

* * *

"What?!"

"It's true," Jessica Wakefield stated as she gazed in amusement at Dana Larson. Both were now in the latter's personal quarters in one of the connecting struts that bound the core of Aurora to the twinned habitation rings framing it; like all the other former Niphentaxian stations seized by the Avalonians, CSAS Aurora was modelled on the rotating wheel space stations that appeared in the movie _2001: A Space Odyssey_. "I just talked to Drum Major Bowman just now. You guys were as much a big hit with both him and Lieutenant Gleason as Serena's girls are. They want you to be part of the band."

Dana blinked before she exchanged looks with Andrea Slade, Emily Mayer and the Porter sisters. "I never thought I'd end up wearing a uniform," Julie then confessed.

"What's the matter with joining up?" Andrea asked. "A lot of us are doing it."

The others in the room smirked on hearing that. Almost to the very moment the federal Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada gave clearance for the first groups of Avalonians to descend from orbit to make new homes for themselves in the Dominion, all twenty-six recruiting centres that processed all applications for people seeking full-time employment in the Canadian Forces nationwide — to say anything of all the Naval Reserve, Militia, Air Reserve and Health Services Reserve units from Comox to Saint John's — were instantly deluged by crowds of willing women wanting to put on the uniform and serve their new homeland. Because of that — tacked onto the formulation of the "Class D" reserve concept which would put funding issues concerning Avalonian-Canadian servicewomen on the shoulders of their home communities and not the federal government — all reserve units were currently at full wartime manning…though when it came to the sixteen former Air Cavalry regiments in the Primary Reserve like the Hollywells, what actually constituted proper "wartime manning" was still up to some debate.

"Do you want to join, Rea?" Dana asked.

Andrea shrugged. "I'm tempted. And if we follow Jessica's suggestion and move to the Niagara Peninsula, we'll have the choice of three units to become part of." She then winked. "All we have to do is decide which type of beret we'd want to wear."

Laughter filled the room. Within the boundaries of the Regional Municipality of Niagara, there were — atop C Squadron of the Hollywells in Welland — 10 Field Battery of the Royal Canadian Artillery in Saint Catharines (a sub-unit of the 56th Field Artillery Regiment, headquartered in Brantford to the west of Niagara) as well as A and C Companies of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment in Saint Catharines and Welland respectively. Groups of Avalonians were advocating the reformation of B and D Companies of the "Links" — as the Niagara Region's resident infantry unit was nicknamed; that was often shortened from "Links and Winks" — in Thorold (south of Saint Catharines) and Niagara Falls respectively to bring the total number of rifle companies up to what it was like for the regular Army during the Cold War; budget cuts in the 1990s, improvements in weapons and vehicle technology and shortfalls in manning had forced the Royal Canadian Regiment, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and le Royal 22e Régiment to reduce the fourth rifle company in their full-time battalions to nil strength. The Links' E and F Companies — respectively the weapons company and the combined logistics/maintenance company of a standard infantry battalion — would be formed in Niagara-on-the-Lake at the site of Butler's Barracks just outside the old village located where the Niagara River emptied into Lake Ontario; it had also been proposed to move the battalion headquarters staff there as well to reforge the traditional bond between the modern regiment and Butler's Rangers, a pro-British light infantry battalion formed by loyalists that had fought unsuccessfully to keep the Thirteen Colonies loyal to the Crown in the 1770s.

The field artillery battery located in Saint Catharines — they shared the Lake Street Armoury with Battalion Headquarters and A Company of the Links — would stay in place, but switch regimental affiliations from the 56th Regiment to a reformed 8th Field Artillery Regiment, to be headquartered in Hamilton northwest of Niagara and have its constituent batteries split between there and Niagara. As envisioned now, the 8th Regiment would have regimental headquarters, the logistics/maintenance battery and three combat batteries located in Hamilton while two batteries — 10 Field Battery being one — would be located in Saint Catharines and another battery located alongside the Links' B Company in Thorold. Since there was no plan at this time to form a band for the 8th Regiment due to the Links and the Hollywells having their own bands which could be sent out on ceremonial occasions to support other units, the Droids would probably not elect to join that unit.

Rumours — which Jessica was keeping track of — coming out over the HyperNet from sisters already in Niagara reported that other units were being formed or reformed to boost the Army's strength in the Hamilton-Niagara area to the equivalent of a full mechanized brigade group, which would require much more than just infantry, artillery and tactical aviation/air cavalry. It had been proposed to restore another artillery regiment which had been based in Niagara back from the Supplementary Order of Battle, the 57th Field Artillery Regiment…but said unit would be re-rolled back into the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps under its pre-1946 title, the 2nd/10th Dragoons, with headquarters in a new armoury in Niagara Falls. Said regiment would have four "sabre" squadrons of personnel trained on the Leopard 26AM main battle tank just adopted by the Canadian Army for units like Sasha Spencer's home regiment, a reconnaissance squadron of Coyotes, plus the regimental headquarters and the combined logistics/maintenance support squadron. Atop that, there would be a regiment of combat engineers, a signal squadron to support a brigade headquarters unit, a health services support battalion composed of medical and dental personnel for second-line casualty services, a service battalion that would handle second-line logistics and maintenance duties, a military police company to provide security services and an intelligence platoon to support the brigade headquarters.

And then, there were the Hollywells…

The arguments concerning the reformation of the Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry had simmered in the background for decades since the Ides of May.

The "pro" side's points were many. There were already a large pool of trained — in many cases, _**at their own expense**_! — would-be air cavalry troopers, pilots and technicians ready to answer the call to arms in the traditional manner. Reforming the Air Cavalry in times of emergencies such as the Persian Gulf War in 1990 had been on the Army's mobilization to-do list since Unification. It would be simplicity itself to merge Air Cavalry training with Air Force training at established schools in Borden, Winnipeg, Portage la Prairie and Moose Jaw. It HAD been the Air Cavalry's job for fifty years to provide tactical aviation services for the Army; it was only proper to adhere to time-honoured tradition, especially with the current government's drive to support the military. The Dominion's greatest soldier was a member of the Corps' senior regiment during the Second World War; if the Corps was reformed with _**her**_ full blessings, Terran-Canadian recruiting numbers would shoot through the roof. Getting the Air Cavalry back in the air would take pressure off the Air Force to funnel resources to more vital tasks such as the defence of the Dominion's airspace. The Air Cavalry could logically step in when the Air Force couldn't respond to domestic missions such as performing search and rescue duties. And the Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry had always been seen as the "fifth combat arm" outside the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps, the Royal Canadian Infantry Corps, the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery and the Canadian Military Engineers.

The "con" points were just as persuasive. If the Corps of Air Cavalry was reformed, Canada would wind up with TWO aerial warfare services fighting for budget dollars from Ottawa…which could easily magnify to THREE services if the Navy fought to get the Fleet Air Arm reformed as an integral branch of Maritime Command; all one had to do was look at the United States to see how Washington handled the conflicting needs of the Air Force and the aviation branches of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard to see how that sometimes worked out, especially during times of recession. There was no need to have _**regiments**_ — equal in size to Air Force wings — support ground brigades when single _squadrons_ had done that since 1970. The Air Force HAD been providing tactical aviation services for the Army for forty years and had a pool of experts who would probably NOT want to switch uniforms, thus wrecking morale. Adopting the new British model of a mechanized infantry brigade composed of an armoured regiment and a reconnaissance regiment supporting four infantry battalions would put extra boots on the ground where the fighting almost always happened. And it would be grossly offensive to Air Cavalry veterans to force such storied regiments like the Hollywells into a "combat support" role since the concept of tactical aviation services for the Army had evolved since World War Two, when the Camel IIs of First Canadian Army had roved the skies of Western Europe and Italy, shooting apart anything that moved on the ground in German _feldgrau_.

Jessica was fully on the "pro" side when it came to that debate. As all her friends knew, the younger Wakefield twin had been a fan of _**her**_ since she first read about the Dominion's greatest soldier thanks to a friend of Herana odai-Hastrah who had done observation duties in Canada during the early 1990s and had actually seen _**her**_ when she was elected Grand Marshal of the Saskatoon Exhibition when she had come back to Earth after a particularly long period away teaching sister Jewel Warriors. It was the potential presence of _**her**_ on Earth that had long held alien races back from openly contemplating invading the planet over the years. Far more than the Steel Angels, the small groups of metahumans like the members of the 33rd Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit or Earth's many hidden magical societies, _**she**_ — and her three closest friends — was seen as the greatest stumbling block towards the success of such an endeavour. That, Jessica suspected, was the reason the Urusians had elected to follow the tag race path when they came to "invade" Earth the previous summer to block a potential Ipraedies attack.

Getting _**her**_ — and the other War Hawks, of course — back on Earth full-time would make the Avalonians' recent move into Earth's solar system all the more successful.

To do that, all those who had any means of influencing _**her**_ had to be brought on-side.

Deanna Hordye — despite her protests to the contrary — was one such person.

And now that Deanna herself was an Avalonian — and soon to bond to Lynne Henry — it would make it easier for Jessica to persuade the martial artist to support it.

Once Deanna had elected to go home…!

"We'll think about it," Dana then stated, shaking Jessica out of her self-reflection. "Much that getting off this station and down on solid ground again would be nice…"

"Would Deanna go along with it?" Emily asked. "She has Helena to think of, too."

"After their being attacked yesterday by that gynoid?" Jessica wondered. "If Sasha herself doesn't lean down on Dee to move back to Niagara — which puts her in far closer range of all of Sasha's friends — as soon as possible, it will shock me."

The others nodded…

* * *

Welland (fifteen kilometres southwest of Niagara Falls), mid-afternoon…

"…paid all her bills on time and without any need of asking anyone for loans," the elderly matron who owned the small apartment block located off East Main Street across from a former shopping mall that served these days as one of Canadian Tire's local customer service centres stated as she opened the door into one of the single-bed apartments on the ground floor. "Never had complaints about her concerning loud noises or anything like that. She's gone most of the time doing her work, of course."

"Of course," Maria Kennison mused as she took a look around. The apartment both looked lived-in and neat, with nothing sticking out that might hint at something odd about one Annabelle Sebastian. "Does she have any friends who visit frequently?"

"Not that I know of," the older woman stated before she sighed. Much that she couldn't do anything about trying to remove the small crowd of police and military personnel invading her property — there was a signed warrant granting the Niagara Regional Police the right to search the trucker's apartment — she didn't like the idea of spending the start of the Easter weekend away from her family. "Why is she being investigated?"

"She was possibly involved in an attack on one of her old schoolmates yesterday afternoon up in the Northwest Territories," the senior police officer present, Sergeant Joel Oswald, stated. "The victim is a person of interest to the Department of National Defence, hence Commander Kennison's and Captain Graham's presence here today."

That made the landlady perk before she gazed on Maria, who had moved into the living room to gaze around. With her was a taller man, possessing dark brown hair cut military short, with blue-grey eyes behind reading glasses. Unlike the intelligence officer — who was in CADPATs — he was dressed in Number 3C dress uniform with the dark green pullover sweater bearing epaulettes, the slip-ons showing his Army captain's rank over the word **JUSTITIA** in gold thread; that served as the shoulder title for the Legal Branch of the Forces. In respect to this being a potential crime scene, both Maria and James Graham had gloves on to ensure their fingerprints didn't contaminate anything. "Normal apartment for a normal person," James mused as he crossed his arms. "Nothing I can see."

"You're not a spook, Jim," Maria noted as she flashed a look at Joel.

The sergeant nodded before he moved to escort the landlady out of the apartment. Once the door was closed, the two visiting military officers and the two constables that had come with Joel to this particular place relaxed. "What are we looking for, Commander?" one of them, Kevin Rathon, asked as he pulled out a tricorder and dataPADD.

"First of all, anything that indicates this place is being watched by someone," Maria answered as she tried not to smirk on seeing the Avalonian-built equipment the two policemen had. All they needed now were Lawgiver pistols to complete the ensemble. "Hidden cameras, microphones stashed away somewhere, sensor filaments…"

"Good place to start," the other constable, Rick McNicoll, breathed out.

"Bathroom," Kevin said. "I'll do the bedroom."

"Right."

Both headed off. _So what the hell do you need_ **me** _for, Maria?_ James then thought out, knowing Maria would telepathically "hear" him. _This is Yukiko's job._

«She's busy dealing with whoever it was that paid Stephen's lab a visit this morning,» the intelligence officer stated. «Besides, you've always had a sharp eye for things.»

That made the legal officer — James was a part of the Assistant Judge Advocate General's staff in Toronto; he normally worked as a trial lawyer defending clients who faced courts martial anywhere in Ontario — lightly blush. "Thanks," he whispered…

…before perking on seeing something on a nearby bookshelf. "Maria."

She looked over…before her jaw dropped in shock. "What on Earth…?"

Walking over to the shelf, she pulled down a picture that had been sitting in front of several Chilton automotive manuals. Gazing closely at it, she blinked several times before shaking her head. "My God…that's Lynn and me!" she hissed out.

"Commander!"

Both officers turned as Kevin peeked out of the bedroom. "What?" James asked.

"You better see this," the police constable advised.

Setting the picture aside, Maria followed him into the bedroom, stopping to look where Kevin was pointing…before her jaw once more fell towards the floor. "What on Earth…?!" she repeated again.

"That's Master Hordye, isn't it?" Kevin asked.

James — who had just come up to join them — nodded. "Yes, that's her…as she looked like before her body-swap," he then added with an amused smirk.

"You _knew_?" Maria asked as she gazed knowingly at her old classmate.

He winked back. "I was the only boy who got the chance to sleep with her back in high school," he admitted without any change of colour in his cheeks. Before the War Hawks really put their future successors' noses to the grindstone when Maria and her peers were in Grade 11, James Graham had been something of a gigolo when it came to his female classmates. That he was able to land a normally-frigid girl like _Deanna Hordye_…!

"Right," she drawled as she walked over to gaze intently at the beautiful oil painting — which had been based on Deanna's Grade 12 graduation picture, Maria was quick to note on seeing the brown-and-orange trimmed white academic gown collar draped around her neck — hanging over Annabelle's bed. "So if she has this…and painted this, too…" she mused, pointing to the scripted "AJS" over the month/year number date "07/95" at one corner of the portrait, "…what could this tell us about her?"

"Well, if the robot version of Miss Sebastian was based off a real person, the 'swap' between them might have been quite recent," Kevin proposed; he had been elected by his division commander to be the officer in charge of this part of the investigation due to his interest in science fiction matters. "But what does that mean for the…?"

Maria's iPhone then rang the tune of _The Keel Row_, the trot march of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. "Kennison," she automatically called out. "What is it, Lorrie?"

"Maria, how soon can you come down to Doan's Ridge Cemetery?" Lorrie Melanko asked.

That made the intelligence officer blink. "What did you find?"

"I played a hunch," the artillery officer replied with a chuckle. "When the NRPs reported that Annabelle's parents were dead, I decided to visit where they were buried. You wouldn't BELIEVE what I just found down here, Maria. Bring everyone."

"We're coming," Maria affirmed with a nod…

* * *

Queenston (seven kilometres east of north from Niagara Falls), that moment…

"What the devil is THAT?!"

Hearing that annoyed question from the thin yet muscular man standing at the front gate of the P/WO1 John C. Ebrill MM CD Vineyards, the tomboyish blonde with the dark blue eyes turned to gaze at one of her best friends. "What the hell are you bitching about now, Martin?" Squadron Leader (retired) Jessica Dover demanded as she crossed her arms.

A pair of dark grey eyes focused on the former Royal Canadian Air Force Woman's Division ferry pilot. "That!" Staff Sergeant (retired) Martin Larsden snapped as he pointed up Concession 1 Road in the general direction of the urban part of Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Jessica looked. The front gate of the Ebrill Vineyards was poised at the top of the "T" junction between Concession 1 Road and Dee Road, almost a kilometre due west of the urban part of Queenston and a kilometre west-northwest of Brock's Monument overlooking the Niagara Escarpment. Located just north of the "T" junction between Concession 1 Road and Line 9 Road on the east side of the former road was what appeared to be a basic railway station, with the shelter and boarding platform closest to the road, a single track emerging from a tunnel to pass by the station on its way northward; when it got close to the station, the track split into pairs with a small platform between them, accessible from the station building by an at-grade walkway. Just as Jessica absorbed all those details, a sleek three-car passenger train emerged from the tunnel to come to a stop at the station. The small crowd of people on the island platform quickly boarded the train as other passengers disembarked just as another three-car unit came up to the station from the north. "Subway station," she finally concluded with a shrug.

Martin blinked. "Subway?! HERE?! What the devil for?!"

"The Niagara Light Rapid Transit network, Staff Sergeant," a strange voice then hailed from the small manor house located close to the front gate. "That's the station set aside for Queenston for trains linking to Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Saint Catharines. Line 2N of the system. Just got installed last month."

Both former members of the War Hawks turned as a middle-aged Korean woman in a black martial arts gi came up to join them. "Why a subway, Lily?" Martin then asked. "Last I recall, there are only four hundred thousand people living in Niagara."

"Well, that population just doubled over the last month thanks to the Avalonians," Lily Ch'oi — her native Korean name was Ch'oi Naeri — stated as she crossed her arms. Even if she was in her early fifties — thus quite younger than the veterans of World War Two, both of whom were in their early nineties despite they both still looking as if they were in their early twenties — she was used to their interesting mood swings.

"The who?!" Jessica asked.

"Either of you know of the Niphentaxians?" Lily asked.

Martin's and Jessica's eyes flashed with recognition. "That race of mimics in that three-star system near here," the latter reported. "They share the system with the Gophentaxians. There are no Jewel Warriors there, at least to Dean's knowledge."

"For a century, they enslaved a race of biological androids," Lily explained. "In mid-February, the Earth Angel…" — she tried not to gulp on mentioning _**that**_ phrase — "…her last host — whose soul was split in half thanks to vowing the Promise — and the Hyoyŏng Emperor of the Huhan led a mixed Noukiite and Yehisrite force to liberate them. All TWO-AND-A-HALF BILLION of them!" she emphasized, which made the just-returned War Hawks gape. "They're now allying themselves with the United Nations to seal off the inner part of the solar system from intrusion by the Niphentaxians and their allies."

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

And then…

"What…?" Martin and Jessica both gasped, their eyes flashing with outrage as faint battle auras instantly appeared around them.

Lily sighed. "It's best that you…"

«Welcome back, you two.»

Everyone perked on hearing that in their heads. "Hello, Maria," Martin called back; he preferred to voice his thoughts out whenever Maria Kennison telepathically communicated with him. "Where the devil are you now? Your 'voice' sounds very close."

«Welland,» Maria called back. «There was an attack yesterday by a gynoid on Deanna and her twin sister Helena; I don't know if either of you were told about her.»

"Deanna was attacked?!" Lily gasped; she viewed the younger woman as her own child, even before Brenda Hordye and her mother Natasha Yevtushenko had passed away. "Why?!"

«We don't know, Master Ch'oi,» Maria responded. «Near as we could tell, it's because Deanna — whom we think was the real target since the gynoid was modelled after a former Centennial student a couple years behind us — was born a hermaphrodite.»

"Do you need help?" Jessica wondered.

A touch of shyness entered Maria's voice. «I don't want to impose…»

"Young lady, we've been a little tense since we got that warning order last summer from the Prime Minister's Office concerning the 'invasion' the Urusians were planning to launch on Earth," Martin explained. "Since there was no direct recall ordered anytime after that warning order came, I assume the tag race went our way."

«No thanks to the Lady Negako's last host,» Maria noted with a titter.

That made both War Hawks blanch. They had seen the _Saikō Jinseijutsu_ in action; it was only by the miracle of the Fates that the being also known as "Moroboshi Negako" had never bonded with a Power Jewel to wind up becoming as physically powerful as the leader of the War Hawks herself! "Dear God! Did the Urusians make it back home in one piece?!" Martin then demanded. "If Negako was involved in anything like _that_…!"

"Martin."

Out of nowhere, an M1C Garand sniper rifle appeared in the retired RCMP officer's hands as he spun around to bring it to bear on target…

…before a finger hardened with ki deflected the weapon away from the face of a woman who appeared to be in her early twenties, possessing a head of shaggy dark brown hair close-cropped at the neck and very dark brown eyes. Said woman was dressed akin to what Lily was wearing, though the newcomer's black belt possessed the golden kanji **地** at the ends. Before Martin could say anything, the ghost of a smile crossed Moroboshi Negako's face. "Welcome home, Martin," she stated before gazing at his companion. "Jessica."

"How'd you get the body?" Jessica immediately asked.

"The Avalon bioroid factory, which was on the surface of Phentax Twelve," Negako answered as she lowered her hand and Martin lowered his weapon. "It is now at the first Earth-Luna Lagrangian point after I — accompanied by my last host and others — helped liberate it from Niphentaxian control six weeks ago. Along with all the Avalonians that were in close range of the factory when Ganzo dai-Louc used the recall mechanisms aboard it. Not to mention those hybrid children born of Avalonian mothers who were also within range."

"And you brought them all HERE?!" Jessica demanded. "Two-and-a-half BILLION…?!"

"They chose to come here to exact vengeance on the Galactic Federation of Planet-States for their acts of appeasement towards the Niphentaxians," Negako cut her off. "Even with my abilities, I could not turn them away. Despite that, we were able to persuade the Neptunians to divert excess snow from Triton to Mars to eventually see the planet terraformed for colonization. The Special Committee on Alien Activities are also in the midst of negotiating with the Imperial Houses of the Seifukusu Dominion to allow thirty colony worlds closest to Sol to fall under joint Terran-Avalonian control. That…" — she indicated the nearby light rapid transit station — "…is only the start of what interactions with the Avalonians has affected life on Earth."

"Wait until you see the starships they brought with them," Lily added.

Martin and Jessica both gaped. "_Starships_…?!"

Negako seemed to smirk. «Um, much that I'd hate to interrupt this, everyone, we do have a situation down here in Welland,» Maria then telepathically cut in.

"What have you discovered about Deanna's and Helena's assailant, Maria?" Negako asked.

A shocked gasp responded. «You KNOW…?!»

"Maria, there is NOTHING that Deannette has done whenever she has returned to Earth for any period of time since her retirement from the Canadian Army that I am NOT aware of," Negako then explained. "What have you discovered concerning this situation?"

«Well, it turns out that the assailant is buried here at Doan's Ridge Cemetery,» a new voice then cut in. Everyone was quick to recognize that as belonging to Lorrie Melanko. «And if the death date is right, the 'Annabelle Sebastian' that attended Centennial Secondary School when we were there was a gynoid!»

Negako gazed on the just-returned War Hawks. "Did Heather or Deannette sense this?"

Both of them shook their heads. "We had our hands full with training Maria and her friends," Martin explained. "Besides, if we went too far out to make people realize who we really were, it would have brought too much attention in the wrong place."

That made the grandmaster of Saikō Jinseijutsu-ryū blink several times before she nodded. "Understood. Jessica, take us to the cemetery. I wish to examine this myself."

Jessica nodded as her eyes glowed a deep crimson. As the fiery image of the ancient luck spirit that had bonded body-and-soul with her decades before formed around them, Martin sighed as he clicked the safety of his weapon. "I _hate_ doing this…!"

In a flash of light, all three vanished, leaving Lily Ch'oi there. Shaking her head, the senior master of the Tensei-ryū in Ontario then turned to head back to the house where the grandmaster of her Art had been born over fourteen decades before…

* * *

Doan's Ridge Cemetery (five kilometres east-southeast of downtown Welland), ten minutes later…

"She died of a form of leukaemia."

Hearing that flat pronouncement from Negako, Joel Oswald gaped. "But how is this possible, Miss Negako?!" he demanded. "If she died, there should be a death certificate, not to mention all the paperwork needed to verify that she was buried…!"

"Sergeant, there's a trace of meson in the headstone."

Eyes locked on Rick McNicholl, who had his tricorder out; he had just done a scan of the headstone in question and had been ready to scan the remains in the small coffin buried in the ground under their feet before Negako spoke. "Similar to a notice-me-not charm," Martin then concluded. "Are there other relatives we can contact about this?"

"We're having it traced down now, Staff Sergeant," Kevin Rathon reported. "But it'll take a bit, even with computers. We might have to raid the Archives of Ontario if more recent records don't give us any indication of other surviving relatives."

"There was no way we could have sensed anything off about Annabelle," James Graham noted. He was standing off to one side, along with Maria Kennison and Lorrie Melanko. "We were too busy doing other things." He then frowned. "But why would Annabelle have a crush — or some sort of attraction — to Deanna, then try to kill her?!"

"We'll have to wait on Stephen to find out," Maria noted…

…before everyone perked on hearing the telltale ringing noise of a materialiser.

People turned as a shower of light appeared under a large tree at the southeast corner of the cemetery grounds. That allowed a woman appearing to be about twenty to materialize. She was dressed in casual civilians with a windbreaker, an ascot on her head. She had dusky golden-brown skin despite her having blonde hair in a bob-cut, bangs falling over her forehead from under her hat, parted in the centre and cut square over her eyebrows. Deep brown eyes peeked out of a beautiful face that glowed with life even if there was a solemn look there. She had a large bouquet of flowers in hand.

"Avalonian," Maria whispered.

"Terran-turned," Negako added with an arched eyebrow. "Her parents are buried in this cemetery." Her other eyebrow then arched as a faint ki reading echoed from close to where the newcomer just beamed in; said person was now approaching a large family headstone. "And her old body, it seems. It appears this one may have been 'kidnapped,' so to speak, by one of the observers that were posted here. No doubt to save her life."

The others all gaped at the ninjutsu grandmaster. "_**WHAT?!**_"

Negako tried not to sigh as said newcomer's head snapped around to gaze at the small crowd standing in the middle of the cemetery. Quick to sense a flash of recognition emanating from that person, Negako walked over. "Greetings," she called out.

The newcomer blinked before her eyes went as wide as saucers. Of course, no Avalonian on Earth or in orbit would NOT know of THIS person. "Miss Negako…?"

A nod responded. "I am she. You are?"

A nervous gulp escaped her as she extended her free hand. "Marlene Ioannis. I'm pleased to meet you, Miss Negako," she said as Negako gave her hand a warm squeeze. Quick to sense the ninjutsu grandmaster probing her with her ki senses, Marlene then smirked. "I'm harmless."

"Have you alerted the proper authorities concerning what occurred to you in 1992?"

The other woman snorted as Negako released her hand. "Trying to. It's rather hard to explain, especially since the man I rescued is now space pollution thanks to what happened on Phentax Twelve." Marlene then shrugged. "As far as the idiots in Immigration Canada are concerned, I'm Terran-form, not Terran-turned. No real difference in government eyes, but it would be nice to get anything that once belonged to my parents and other relatives given over to me without anyone raising a stink over it."

Negako nodded. "I comprehend, Marlene. There is someone who can assist you in that manner. Where exactly have you been residing since your return to Earth?"

"Winnipeg; I work for Sopwith Canada in their Advanced Projects Design Team."

The ninjutsu grandmaster smirked. "Preparing the new tactical fighter for the regiments of the Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry on their restoration to flight status?"

Marlene laughed. "There were a couple guys who had an idea or two, but didn't have anything in the way of government funding to advance it beyond the computer model stage. We should have something prepped up on Sethlans in a couple weeks." She then sighed. "Excuse me, please." With that, she moved to kneel before her family headstone.

Negako moved to rejoin the others. "Who's that?" James asked.

She moved to explain. Jaws instantly dropped as people took in what the ninjutsu grandmaster had just discovered, then Martin and Jessica exchanged looks. "We should have returned to Earth when the warning order came," the former stated.

"You might have been effective in helping free the Avalonians," Negako stated with a nod before she gazed once more on Marlene. "If it is necessary, Maria, we will obtain the assistance of 'W' Division to ensure Marlene can regain her legal identity here."

"I can arrange that," Martin stated.

"Aren't we supposed to be _retired_?" Jessica asked as she rolled her eyes.

"Mister Larsson! Miss Kent!"

Both War Hawks looked over to see that Marlene was now standing straight and gazing at them. "Hello, Miss Ioannis!" Martin responded as she came over to join them. As soon as she was in close hearing range, he added, "It's good to see that you're alive and well. Negako here told us of what happened to the man who rescued you."

"He didn't hurt you, did he?" Lorrie demanded.

Marlene stopped as her eyes locked on her fellow Centennial alumni, confusion crossing her face before recognition dawned. "You were three of the special students that Mister Larsson and Miss Kent — not to mention Miss Hawke and Miss Thomas — taught back at school!" She then gazed on the three policemen there. "What's going on here?"

"Miss Ioannis, did you know an Annabelle Sebastian?" Martin asked.

That made the aerospace systems technician — Marlene had learned a lot of things in her eighteen years of effective exile under the "ownership" of the man who had once been known as "Shayne Hamlyn" on Earth; she was currently being evaluated by people from Ryerson University in Toronto to be properly accredited with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering — blink in confusion before she nodded. "Belle?! Sure I know her! I dated her when I was at Centennial; we were classmates. Why, Mister Larsson?"

"Marlene, his proper name is 'Martin Larsden,'" Negako cut in as she flashed an amused look towards the War Hawks' sniper. "Staff sergeant of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police — and the Canadian Provost Corps during the Second World War — until his retirement from the service in 1956. Just as his companion — whom you knew as 'Jane Kent' — is Jessica Dover, squadron commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force."

"Lady Negako!" Maria cried out as Marlene's jaw dropped in stunned shock.

"Maria, be silent," Negako flatly declared, making Maria tense. "As she is a friend and former classmate of Annabelle's, Marlene deserves to know how she was deceived when she was intimate with a gynoid built in Annabelle's image. The same gynoid that attacked a woman Marlene deeply cares for yesterday, requiring Deanna to undergo a body-swap."

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

And then…

"Belle…a ROBOT?!"

That was an ashen-faced Marlene. As people looked at her, she began to point at people. "Wait! Two of the _**War Hawks**_ were teaching at school?! Why?! And what the hell's this about Belle being a ROBOT of all things?! I slept with her, damn it! There's no way she was like one of the Steel Angels, for God's sake! What the hell's going on here?!" She then stopped as the last part of Negako's statement came back to her.

"_**WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO DEANNA?!**_" she then shrieked.

"You require to be briefed on some things," Negako stated.

As Marlene gaped at her, the others all sighed…

**_To Be Continued…_ **

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES**

1) Translations: **Saturday Soldier** — Nickname bestowed to members of the Primary Reserve of the Canadian Forces due to their parading on the weekends; **IED** — Improvised Explosive Device; **Herr** — Literally "lord," this is the German equivalent of the English "Mister"; **Rittmeister** — Literally "Ride Master," this is the German Army cavalry rank equivalent of an army captain (NATO rank code OF-2); **Diarium Ejus** — Literally "his diary," this is the name of the magical telepathic book bestowed to **Miyazaki Nodoka** whenever she uses her **Pudica Bibliothecaria** ("Modest Librarian") pactio gift; **MMP** — Magical Member of Parliament, the Canadian title to those people serving on the Dominion's version of the British Wizengamot; **MagicNet** — The magical version of the Internet; **Med Tech** — Short title for a **Medical Technician** (the medics in the Canadian Forces); **SAR Tech** — Short title for a **Search and Rescue Technician** (the Air Force's in-house para-rescue specialists); **Feldgrau** — Literally "field grey," this was the colour of the field uniform worn by members of the German Army from 1907 to 1945; **dataPADD** — Literally "data Personal Archival Display Device"; **P/WO1** — Pilot Warrant Officer Class 1, the highest non-commissioned officer rank in the Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry (NATO rank code OR-9); **Hyoyŏng Emperor of the Huhan** — Korean way of saying the phrase "**Xiàolíng Emperor of the Hòuhàn**" ("the Filial and Inattentive Emperor of the Latter Hàn"), who lives now as Moroboshi Ataru's sister **Moroboshi Hiromi**.

2) **Aihoshi Yukiko** (**Sunbird**) and **Larry Donald Brigham** (**Galaxy**) were created as members of the Heroes Alliance of Canada. Yukiko's proper name in Western "family name-last" order is "Yukiko Donna Aihoshi"; since I use the proper Oriental "family name-first" naming order for those in the West who still fully embrace their ancestral ways, I didn't make mention of her middle name here. As an aside, I borrowed the concept of the **Institute for Science and Magic** (**ISM**) from the fanfic writer **Marietsy** (listed now at this website as "marietsy2").

3) Canadian military unit notes:

**2 Military Police Unit** (**2 MPU**) is the security and military police force tasked to provide those functions to Land Forces Central Area. It is a "Total Force" unit with both regular and reserve elements working together under a single commanding officer based in Toronto. The unit is a light battalion in size, divided into three companies: **20 Military Police Company** (**20 MP COY**) to handle security issues for Regular Force field units in the province; **21 Military Police Company** (**21 MP COY**) to handle security issues for the Reserve Force field units in the province; and **22 Military Police Company** (**22 MP COY**) to handle security issues at all bases and garrisons in the province. **33 Military Police Platoon** (**33 MP PL**) in Ottawa is the element of 21 Company that provides security services for **33 Canadian Brigade Group** (**33 CBG**), the reserve formation for eastern and northern Ontario. The platoon was first formed as "28 Military Police Platoon" in the 1970s and became part of "2 Military Police Company" when reserve military police units were amalgamated together into regional companies in 2003. They were banded together with regular force military police units and detachments in Ontario in 2006, forming 2 MPU. In real life, the unit was renamed "2 Military Police Regiment" in 2011.

**Land Forces Central Area** (**LFCA**) is, at the time of this story, the senior formation in administrative and operational charge of all Army units in Ontario. LFCA was first founded in 1991 when the Army's senior leadership elected to streamline command and control functions; the headquarters unit was upgraded from the original **Central Militia Area Headquarters** (**CMA HQ**) — then responsible for command and control over all reserve force units in the province — to include administrative and operational control over all regular force formations and units in Ontario outside those units assigned under either 1st Canadian Division Headquarters (introduced in Part One) or the **Land Forces Doctrine and Training System** (**LFDTS**), the formation in charge of all training facilities in the Army.

**H.M.C.S. **_**Griffon**_ is the naval reserve division based in Thunder Bay. The ship was named originally for the first Western-style sailing ship built to sail the upper Great Lakes, _le Griffon_, built in 1679 on the banks of the Niagara River for the use of **René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle** (1643-87) to support his exploration of the North American interior for France. The Canadian Navy unit named after that ship was founded in 1937 as the "Port Arthur Division" of the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve and commissioned under its current name in 1941. As an aside, a **Naval Control of Shipping** (**NCS**) officer is responsible for coordinating and administering all shipping movements during times of warfare.

The **Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (Duke of Edinburgh's Own)** (**CH OF O**) is one of the two reserve infantry battalions based in Ottawa and forms part of 33 CBG. The regiment is a Highland unit and was formed in 1866 as the "Carleton Battalion of Infantry," the regiment acquired the name it possesses at the time of this story in 1933 and was accorded its royal sub-title in 2013; **Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh** (born 1921) is the the **Colonel-in-Chief** (the royal patron) of the regiment.

The **Health Services Reserve** is that part of the reserve element composed solely of medical and dental service personnel. Controlled by the Canadian Forces Health Services Group in Ottawa, the Health Services Reserve either parades at local **field ambulances** based in all the major cities across the Dominion or remain on stand-by to be called to service while working at civilian health care facilities full-time.

**10 Field Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery** (**10 FD BTY RCA**) was first formed as the "Welland Canal Field Battery" in 1861. The battery was given its present number in 1920. The field battery became affiliated with the **56th Field Artillery Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery** (**56 FD REGT RCA**) in 1970 after the **57th Field Artillery Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery (2nd/10th Dragoons)** was placed on the Supplementary Order of Battle. The 56th Regiment was first formed in 1946 from the re-designation of the "Dufferin and Haldimand Rifles of Canada," which had been formed in 1866 as the local battalion of infantry for Haldimand County.

The **Number 3C Uniform** combines the pants, dress shirt and tie of the **Number 3 Uniform** (the "Service" uniform) with a knit sweater in the same colour as the pants (Navy blue-black, Army dark green or Air Force sky blue) possessing a crew-neck style and fabric patches at the elbows and the shoulders. Epaulettes are mounted on the sweater, the wearer's rank on slip-ons slid around the epaulettes.

A **trot march** is done when mounted parades move at the trot (hence the name), which averages about thirteen kilometres per hour (eight miles per hour). As an aside, _**The Keel Row**_ — the trot march of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery as noted above — is based on a traditional Tyneside folk song evoking the life and work of the keelmen (men who worked on the keels, large boats that carried coal from the shore to waiting collier ships) of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in northeast England close to the Scottish border. The tune was first published in 1770, but is believed to be older.

4) _Negima_ character notes:

**Wilhelm Josef **_**Graf**_** von Herrman** was a character who fought **Negi Springfield** and his friend **Inugami Kotarō** to save several of the former's charges in Class 3-A from permanent petrification; this storyline was covered in Volume Eight of the manga series. It should be noted that after Negi had defeated Herrman, he spared the demon's life even _after_ learning of what the latter had done to Negi's home village. As an aside, Akamatsu-sensei placed the German noble title _graf_ ("count") BEFORE the given names; in proper German noble language name order, the rank title always comes before words such as _von_ ("of"), thus making the alias the demon used have the noble title and effective family name "Count of Herrman."

**Hakase Satomi** was, at the time the _Negima_ manga was set, Student #24 in Class 2-A (and later, Class 3-A) at the Mahora Academy's junior high division. A certifiable genius, Satomi — whose nickname is ALSO _hakase_ (written as **博士** and meaning "professor") as a play on her family name; as a note, Satomi's family name is written with the kanji **葉加瀬** (meaning "book page," "to augment" and "swift current" respectively) — was the person responsible for creating her own classmate, **Karakuri Chachamaru** (Student #10) so she could act as the _ministra magi_ ("apprentice mage") for **Evangeline Athanasia Katherine McDowell** (Student #26). At the time of this story, Satomi is a senior at Mahora Academy's university division…and is making quite a name for herself in the scientific community even if many of her projects are seen as completely whacky (hence the derisive nickname also noted above). In my eyes, Satomi is a technomage.

5) The Canadian **Ministry of Magical Affairs** (**MMA**) is the Dominion's equivalent to the British Ministry of Magic as depicted in the _Harry Potter_ novels. **"W" Division, Royal Canadian Mounted Police** — which I first introduced in _The Icemaidens and the Philosopher's Stone_ — is the equal of the Aurors serving the British ministry; they were merged into the Force on its founding in 1920 from an independent magical police force that was answerable to the MMA. I chose "W" as the division title as it could mean "wizard" or "witch"; I couldn't use "M" (for "magical") as **"M" Division, RCMP** is the territorial police force of the Yukon.

6) **Lord Rjazán'** first appeared in my fanfic _Wanderers_. _**Rittmeister**_** Josef Wilhelm **_**Freiherr**_** von Taserich** first made his appearance in the third _Wizards and Avalonians_ story, though he's been mentioned from time to time in other stories. As an aside, the term _freiherr_ literally means "free lord" and is the German noble equivalent of a British baron.

7) **Lily Ch'oi** (AKA **Ch'oi Naeri**), **Izak Miles** and **Marlene Ioannis** are all characters from _Deanna's Surprise_. Lily is an ethnic Korean who moved to Canada to teach martial arts while Izak was a police officer in the NRP and Marlene was Deanna Hordye's high school love interest in the original story. As an aside, Koreans normally are sticklers for using the proper family name-first naming order…but when they adopt English names, they follow Western family name-last order in using them. Sometimes, they also combine both their birth and adopted names together — i.e. "Lily Ch'oi Naeri" — which can get VERY confusing to those who don't understand how names are written in the Land of the Morning Calm.

8) _Gossip Girl_ is a teen romance novel series written by **Cecily von Ziegesar** (born 1970). There were fourteen novels in the original series, released between 2002-11, plus a series of four novels under the general title _Gossip Girl: The Carlyles_ released in 2008-09. The television series based on the novels, shown by The CW network, ran from 2007-12. **Serena van der Woodsen** is the star of the series. A native of Manhattan's Upper East Side, she attended a private school in Connecticut before transferring to the Constance Billard School for Girls at the start of the first novel. She is an "it" girl who is often accused by her peers of using her good looks to get her way, though some critics of the series see her as boring.

9) A **single-tier municipality** in Ontario is a one-level form of municipal government that is directly subordinate to the provincial government in Toronto. **Haldimand County** in south-central Ontario became such in 2001. Before 1974, it was a standard county divided into townships and towns with municipal services controlled at local levels. In 1974, it became one-half of the **Regional Municipality of Haldimand-Norfolk**, a two-tier municipal form of government which combined services such as policing at the regional level. This was modelled after Haldimand County's eastern neighbour, the **Regional Municipality of Niagara**, which was amalgamated from Lincoln and Welland Counties in 1970; the **Niagara Regional Police Service** (**NRP**) is a subordinate agency of the Niagara Region. To this day, the Niagara Region remains as it was initially established. As an aside, **Norfolk County** — located to the west of Haldimand County — also was a traditional county before 1974 and became a single-tier municipality in 2001. **Cayuga Township** was sited in the middle of Haldimand; the territory formed part of the town of **Haldimand** from 1974-2001 and the county headquarters before 1974 and after 2001 was located in the village of the same name in the centre of the township. **Humberstone Township** in Welland County was on the shores of Lake Erie at the southern terminus of the Welland Canal. Most of the territory became part of the city of **Port Colborne** in 1970; the northwest sectors around Dain City became part of **Welland**.

10) The early history of the **Haldimand and Welland Cavalry Regiment (Air)** (**H&WCR**) — which is my creation; this unit does not exist in real life — reflects one of the most ridiculous episodes of military foolishness known: The **Fenian raids** staged against the British North American territories from the United States in the years after the American Civil War. Driven by the understandable desire to see Ireland free from British rule, the leadership of the **Fenian Brotherhood** — a spiritual precursor of the infamous Irish Republican Army that helped win Ireland's independence during the years of the First World War and later instigated the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland — hatched the idea of invading what would eventually become modern Canada as a way of holding the land hostage to force the British to let go of Ireland. The most successful of these raids crossed the Niagara River from Buffalo in New York to the Niagara Peninsula of then-Canada West in June 1866. This led to the **Battle of Ridgeway** on 2 June that year, when a "brigade" — in effect, a light battalion — of Fenians fought Canadian militia north of the village of the same name. The battle was a Fenian success…but fears of local mobilisation forced the Fenians to withdraw back to New York state a day later after another quick battle at Fort Erie late on 2 June 1866 after the victory at Ridgeway. When the United States Navy steam frigate U.S.S. _Michigan_ moved to block off any reinforcements, the Fenians were forced to surrender to American custody after withdrawing from Fort Erie.

As an aside, the histories of the various regiments of the **Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry** (**RCCAC**) can be read in _The Air Cavalry Regiments of Canada_, a fact file located at the FictionPress website under my pen name.

11) A note on medals and decorations spoken of here:

The **MM** is the **Military Medal**, which was the third-level decoration for valour awarded in the United Kingdom from 1914-93 for soldiers and non-commissioned members. The equivalent for officers at the time the Military Medal was awarded was the **Military Cross** (**MC**). Canadian soldiers were eligible for the MC/MM until an indigenous Canadian honours system was devised in the 1970s. For British soldiers, it was decided in 1993 that deeds that merited the MM would see them given the MC instead; this was part of a large revamping of the British honour system to remove the dividing lines between officers and non-commissioned members. Subsequent deeds that merit the awarding of an additional MM/MC would see **award bars** added to the medal ribbon (or a silver rosette on the undress ribbon); this is similar to the American practice of adding **oak leaf clusters**, **"V" devices** or **service stars** to medals.

The **Medal of Military Valour** (**MMV**) spoken of at the start of this part is the modern Canadian version of the MC/MM. This award was first instituted in 1993 when the Canadian government restored the **Victoria Cross** (**VC**) as the highest bravery award for military personnel serving with the Dominion's armed forces; the second-level bravery decoration is the **Star of Military Valour** (**SMV**).

The **CD** is the **Canadian Forces Decoration**, which is the long service award of the Canadian Forces. First established in 1939, it is open to all members of the Canadian military and is normally awarded for twelve years of service with good conduct. Part-time servicemen in the reserve forces are rated in the very same manner as their full-time regular force counterparts; the date when a serviceman is sworn in is the marker from where qualifying time for the CD is measured. Award bars to the CD are added for every ten years additional service past the initial twelve-year qualifying period.

12) The **M1 Garand** — officially the **United States Rifle, Calibre .30, M1** — was the first semi-automatic battle rifle developed for use in the field. The first version of this weapon came into service with the American Army in 1936 and the weapon was employed until 1976; the weapon is still used by drill teams to this very day. Developed at the **Springfield Armoury** in its namesake town in Massachusetts, the M1 — named in tribute to its Québec-born designer, **John Garand** (1888-1974) — was given the highest praise by none other than Third United States Army commander General **George S. Patton, Jr** (1885-1945), when he declared it "_the greatest battle implement ever devised_." Over six million M1s were built.

Martin Larsden of the War Hawks makes use of an M1C sniper version of the Garand, which mounts an M81 telescopic scope to allow the shooter to aim at a distant target. The reason why the sniper of the War Hawks makes use of the M1 in lieu of the standard Canadian battle rifle from World War Two (the **Lee-Enfield Rifle No. 4 Mk I** in .303 calibre) is that his team was most often involved in battles against their opponents in the United States and the Springfield .30-08 ammunition round was readily available despite the M1 having only an eight-round capacity versus the No. 4 Mk I's ten. The fact that the Garand was designed by a _Canadian_ also helped in the selection of the weapon for Martin to use. His Garand — since his targets were often metahumans — was specially modified to fire copper-jacketed ebony mesonium bullets created for his use by his team leader, usually hyper-charged with ki so they could penetrate any known defence.

13) The story about the **Sopwith Aircraft Company of Canada** and how it came to be is described in Part 51 of _PFtA_ (read Writer's Note #9).

14) **Ryerson University** in Toronto is one of Canada's top technical schools. First formed as the "Ryerson Institute of Technology" in 1948, the institution was reformed as a university in 1971. It is located in the downtown section of Canada's largest city, near the intersection of Yonge and Dundas Streets.


End file.
